Nature: Global 3D model of mantle attenuation using seismic normal modes

Our Nature article “Global 3D model of mantle attenuation using seismic normal modes” received world wide attention.

• CNN: “Two buried ‘supercontinents’ hiding inside Earth could be much older than previously thought”
• KIJK Magazine: “Op de aardkern liggen twee hete en oeroude ‘continenten”
• Utrecht University: “Subterranean ‘islands’: strongholds in a potentially less turbulent world”

Deeply hidden in Earth’s mantle there are two huge ‘islands’ with the size of a continent. New research from Utrecht University, published in Nature, shows that these regions are not only hotter than the surrounding graveyard of cold sunken tectonic plates, but also that they must be ancient: at least half a billion years old, perhaps even older. These observations contradict the idea of a well-mixed and fast flowing Earth’s mantle, a theory that is becoming more and more questioned. “There is less flow in Earth’s mantle than is commonly thought.”