Earth Crust Tearing Open?

[Christina]

Voyage to a mid Atlantic enigmaAfter several days to prepare and take on supplies, the British ocean research vessel RSS James Cook sailed out of Santa Cruz harbour at the beginning of March on a six week mission that sounds as if it is straight from the realms of science fiction. You’ve heard of the gap in the ozone layer? Welcome to the one in the Earth’s crust!The expedition is heading out to a place where that crust is missing. The resulting “hole” covers an area of several thousand square miles on the Mid Atlantic Ridge, midway between Cape Verde and the Caribbean, about 2,000 miles south-west of the Canary Islands.Instead of the crust, usually about 4 miles thick, there is what scientists call “an open wound” of dense, dark green rock known as serpentinite which makes up the deep upper layer of the Earth called its mantle.Tectonic plates move away from each other at the Mid Atlantic Ridge and usually the gap left fills with hot molten rock that rises from the Earth’s mantle. For some reason it seems the Earth is not repairing itself here and a gaping hole remains.Dr Chris MacLeod, a member of the RSS James Cook team, said: “It doesn’t quite fit the generally accepted model of plate tectonics. We hope to get a direct insight into the processes that go on in the Earth.”The rupture was first detected some five years ago in sonar soundings.Two of the most plausible theories put forward to explain the mystery so far are that a fault tore away massive chunks of crust or that in what is an area of crust-forming volcanoes, this particular zone was strangely devoid of that outer material.Geophysicist Dr Bramley Murton of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, another member of the 12 person team, is clearly excited about the prospects of making new discoveries about the Earth’s structure.“It’s like a window into the interior of the Earth,” he said and added that what they find could lead to a new way of understanding the processes of plate tectonics.The study also aims to provide information on everything from oceanic chemistry tio the mechanics of the seafloor and how it behaves under the weight of so much water.The ship is carrying a robot which will be sent down to the exposed mantle and drill into it to bring back samples from the hole, more than 16,000 feet below the surface. AW

 

[Christina]

I posted this Article because not only is it interesting but in the last 24 hrsthis area seems to have been having some abnormal activity.This again one of those area that can possiably effect the east coast of the US should there be a tsunami. MAP 5.3 2007/04/24 16:07:41 29.058 -43.114 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 5.0 2007/04/24 07:36:59 29.195 -43.225 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 4.9 2007/04/24 07:25:45 29.147 -43.304 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 4.8 2007/04/24 07:06:25 29.413 -43.175 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 5.0 2007/04/24 05:56:34 29.220 -43.218 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 4.6 2007/04/24 00:25:26 29.294 -43.044 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 4.8 2007/04/24 00:14:13 29.221 -43.280 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE MAP 4.7 2007/04/23 22:59:27 29.055 -43.099 10.0 NORTHERN MID-ATLANTIC RIDGE