Scientists have discovered the "fossilized fingerprint" of a chunk of seafloor that was hiding beneath the Pacific Ocean in Earth's mantle. A new study shows that this fingerprint corresponds to a ...

By contrast, geophysical observations, in particular from seismology, indicate that some subducted oceanic plates, known as slabs, sink all the way into the lower mantle (Fig. 1). This seems to ...

The melting curves of carbonated basalt at upper mantle and transition zone pressures are from ... lower mantle is in the form of refractory diamond in the deepest lower mantle along a slab geotherm ...

Unlike standard subduction, in which a tectonic plate descends beneath another plate into Earth, flat slab subduction is ... descending farther into Earth's mantle. Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert!

Slab pull occurs where older, denser tectonic plates sink into the mantle at subduction zones. As these older sections of plates sink, newer and less dense sections of plate are pulled along behind.

Earth's continents are slowly moving across the planet's surface due to plate tectonics, culminating in regions of crustal ...

(a, b) Images show deformation cell assemblage and microstructure of shear-deformed Al bearing-phase D aggregate under 20GPa, 800°C, conditions of lower mantle transition zone. Large deviation of ...