How the Great Impact That Could Create the Moon and Reshape the Earth’s Surface Happened

Scientific research shows that giant collision from our planet with the help of another object he not only formed Moonbut also created continental shifts.

A few years ago 4500 million yearsAccording to many scientists, Earth collided with Theaanother planetary object size of Mars. It is believed that when two worlds collided, wreckage They were sent into space, trapped in orbit around a young, damaged Earth, and gave birth to formation of our Moon.

But according to a study published last month in the journal, the Ti encounter may have done more than that. Letters on Geophysical Research. The exposure could have led to something else: Tectonic platesthe engine that drives the Earth’s giant continental and oceanic plates, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptionsAnd redo That surface our planet approximately every 200 million years.

Earth scientists have long studied and debated the origins of plate tectonics, and other theories have been proposed. Qian YuanCaltech researcher and co-author of the new paper, and his colleagues say, Tea collision as the beginning of plate tectonics. Using computer modeling, they argue that this event produced the heat needed in the early days of Earth’s existence to start this process.

Tectonics begins with the rise of columns of superheated magma near the Earth’s core, which settle beneath the planet’s plates. Plumes can weaken the Earth’s crust, and lava can erupt and push plates upward.

Driven by erupting lava, plates rub and collide with each other, and can also dive under other plates and penetrate into the planet’s interior in a process called subduction.

In previous studies, Yuan described continent-sized “masses” floating about 3,200 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, close to the core. He and his team believe these masses represent the remains of tea, which, when forcibly expelled, created the heat necessary to form the first columns of magma that set tectonics in motion. The giant masses are thought to be associated with magma columns, meaning they could cause plate tectonics.

“Modeling shows that The catastrophic giant impact that formed the Moon triggered the engine that drives plate tectonics.– Yuan said.

Another track is located in Western Australia. There, in a place called Jack Hills, the rocks contain crystals that formed about 4.4 billion years ago, shortly after, geologically speaking, Tea arrived on Earth.

These Australian crystals, called zircons, only form where plate subduction occurs, and subduction can only occur on planets with active plate tectonics.

Once Yuan learned that the zircons were formed relatively soon after the Tea impact, he became convinced that the impact had something to do with the onset of plate tectonics.

Bradford Foley, a geophysicist at Pennsylvania State University, says the idea that plate tectonics began as a result of planetary collisions makes sense. But that’s not the only way tectonics occurs, he said.

“A giant impact is a possible way to make the Earth’s core very hot to begin with“, said. “It’s an interesting idea and I’m glad to see it published for discussion by the scientific community, but for the general public it can be easily overblown and dramatized.”

An alternative explanation, which the study does not refute, he says, is that the initial formation of the planet’s core may have warmed it enough to trigger tectonic activity.

The challenge, Yuan explained, is to accurately represent the physical state of our planet more than four billion years ago.

“We’re confident in our model, but does it really represent the whole real Earth?” – Yuan asked. “This is a question that will have to study with future tests“

© New York Times 2024