1srelluc
Diamond Member
A massive blob of hot rock underneath New England appears to be part of an ancient 'wave' that's moving towards millions of Americans in New York.
Scientists said this nearly 250-mile blob called the Northern Appalachian Anomaly (NAA) is roughly 125 miles underground, stretching across Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
A team from the University of Southampton in the UK and the Helmholtz Center for Geosciences in Germany found it using seismic tomography, a method that's like taking a CT scan of the Earth.
Unlike typical hot spots near volcanoes, this blob is far inland, hidden beneath the ancient Appalachian Mountains, and it's still moving south, towards New York and New Jersey.
Until now, these kinds of mysterious underground formations have only been seen near volcanoes or around the border of tectonic plates. However, New England isn't near either of these.
Researchers concluded that it's part of a slow-moving 'mantle wave,' a chain of sinking and rising rock set in motion over 90 million years ago when North America split from Europe near the Labrador Sea, which sits between Canada and Greenland.
The NAA's slow creep of roughly 12 miles every million years suggests it will reach New York City in about 15 million years.
However, the new study noted that this immense moving blob is not alone, and older blobs could be part of an ongoing 'drip' of heavy rock sinking like a glob of syrup in water under the US.
A giant slime ball in the northeast, say it isn't so.
Clock's ticking NYC, only 15 million years left, better start raising taxes now.