Yosemite National Park, Sierra Nevada, California, (USA)
A section of the upper cloak and the crust under the mountains under the Yosemite National Park in Sierra Nevada, California (USA), is off, in a process that can be identical to the way continents have formed.
A study published in December in Geophysical Research Letters revealed that the terrestrial crust if you are movingunder the mountains of Serra Nevada, California.
This process, designated by lithospheric foundryIt is not, however, a reason for concern. In fact, the researchers theorize that it may have been how the continents graduated.
As it writes, the casting can be the way the lightest materials of the crust separate from the heaviest materials, creating the continents on which the entire earthly life depends.
According to the new study, the lithosphere – the upper part of the land cloak and part of the crust – has already taken off and sank into the deepest cloak. The lithosphere under the central mountain is currently peelingwhile the process has not yet reached the end of the mountain range.
The study author, True Schulte-PelkumGeoscientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder and Deborah KilbSismologist at the University of California in San Diego, analyzed the earthquake records in the region from 1985 to 2023.
A layer was found between 40 and 70 km deep, where the rocks are separating from the crust above. In the Southern Serra, near Sequoia National Park, this layer disappeared and in the northern mountain range, around Lake Tahoe, was not cut. But In the central mountain range, under Yosemite National Park, the layer is actively falling into the cloak.
There are, however, signals to the surface that this detachment is occurring.
Schulte-Pelkum told Live Science that the previous investigation had already implied that this peeling could have occurred below Serra do Sul 3 or 4 million years ago. However, “now, we say, ‘I think It is still happening‘. That’s why we are caught it in the act. ”
The same scientist suggests that the same process of forming continental crusts It may be happening other parts of the world, notably in the New Zealandin the Plateau of Anatolia, in Türkiyeand Carpatsin East Europe.
