01/02/2022: Scientists discover secret connection between Panama and the Galapagos Islands!


One ??of these flexed during the recent eruption of the Sierra Negra volcano in the Galapagos Islands, which are almost a thousand kilometers off South America in the Pacific Ocean Magma dikes sharply north near the coast in June 2018 (Photo: TuiteroSismico)

An international group of scientists has discovered a secret underground connection between Panama, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific. This allows magma from the deepest layers of the planet to move laterally and transport materials great distances. The scientists, which include researchers from the United States, Costa Rica, Australia, Mexico, Romania and Germany, among others, published the study in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The discovery described in the study could change the understanding of the geological processes in the Earth's mantle.

Costa Rican scientist Esteban Gazel, one of the authors of the study, told the Cornell University (USA) journal that the Earth's mantle is "like an ocean with multiple currents" flowing at great depths at the boundary between the Earth's core and earth mantle arise. It is these currents that give rise to volcanoes and oceanic islands such as Hawaii or the Galapagos Islands. However, the scientists' study also shows that once this material reaches the upper mantle, it can spread and affect a much larger area than originally thought".

The scientists tested this lateral shift by relating geochemical signals from mantle plumes (rays of mantle-derived material) from the Galapagos Islands to mantle material found under the crusts of Panama and Costa Rica. Gazel noted that at age 19 he began collecting data on volcanic rocks in the Central American region that did not fit the geological features of the Central American volcanic arc, the chain of volcanoes stretching along the Central American Isthmus from Panama to southern Mexico extends. These volcanoes are fed by the subduction of the Cocos Plate, a tectonic plate off the Pacific coast of Central America, and the Caribbean Plate.

And while there have been hypotheses of lateral displacement of material from the Galapagos Islands, no evidence has been presented to support this. Evidence of this is the elevated levels of helium isotopes discovered in hot springs in Panama. The only known source of elevated helium isotope levels is plumes rising from the Earth's mantle, the scientists said. According to the scientists, the plumes are moving from the Galapagos Islands toward Panama and Costa Rica by exploiting a gap in the subduction zone between the Nazca Plate and the Caribbean Plate that formed eight million years ago. This gap allowed part of the Galapagos mantle plume to move a distance of 1,600 kilometers northeast and under Central America. (Source: www.latina-press.com)