Inside our planet , there are the remains of another world . No , we are not pitch some confederacy possibility like the hollow Earth . We are talking about the remains ofTheia , the Mars - sized physical object that , billions of years ago , bump off our major planet and led to the formation of the Moon . Its remains were just incorporated with our planet but not completely . This is the bold thought that has gain more and more grounds in late days .
The shock between Earth and Theia may have literally left a braggy mark on our planet . There are two queer construction entomb deep in the Mickey Charles Mantle , surrounding the Earth ’s core . They are known as Large Low - Velocity Provinces ( LLVPs ) . These anomalous formations are located beneath the African Tectonic home plate and the Pacific tectonic plate . They are believed to have settle as they are denser than the surrounding mantle material .
Their denseness look on their chemical composition . Researchers used seismal waves as a sonogram of the Earth ’s interior and found these denser neighborhood . They believe they have more smoothing iron than the rest of the drape and that ’s where the connection came from . Dr Qian Yuan from Caltech was listening to a seminar give by Professor Mikhail Zolotov in 2019 , when Zolotov explicate the Gaia hypothesis and comment that the Moon is rich in branding iron like , presumably , Theia was .
" Right after Mikhail had said that no one recognise where the impactor is now , I had a ' eureka moment ' and recognise that the iron - rich impactor could have transformed into mantle blob , " Dr Yuan said in astatement .
Detailed simulations showed that the scenario is a sound surmise . An impact with Theia would not completely desolate the planet , and much of the push and material would remain in the upper mantle . There the " Theia blobs " coalesced and finally subside to the bottom near the mantle - nub bound . The team compares this to lava lamp wax . If the lower mantle had been spicy , the LLVPs would have not existed , as the material would have mixed better .
The squad is now investigate what upshot having these anatomical structure in the middle of the pall during the formative years of our major planet might have had on Earth ’s geology . Our world is quite unique , geologically , compared to the other ones in the Solar System .
" A logical event of the idea that the LLVPs are remnants of Theia is that they are very ancient , " Dr Paul Asimow said . " It constitute sentience , therefore , to investigate next what consequences they had for Earth ’s earliest phylogenesis , such as the onset of subduction before conditions were suitable for modern - mode denture tectonics , the formation of the first continents , and the origin of the very old surviving terrestrial minerals . "
A paper describing the results is published in the journalNature .
