Gravity is not the same everywhere on earth. These differences are not inherently obvious, but they are actually there. However, there is one point on our planet where gravity is particularly weak, and that is in the Indian Ocean. As part of their study, scientists may have figured out why.
The Indian Ocean Geoid Anomaly
The earth is not a perfect sphere and therefore matter and mass are not evenly distributed. However, it is precisely this mass that determines gravity. Therefore, gravity (or gravitational pull) is not the same everywhere. Our planet also has elevations (mountains) and holes (seas and oceans), so there must be other variations. theoretically difficult to recognize.
One of these little-known areas was the focus of a study published in May 2023 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. In recent years, satellites have been measuring fluctuations in our planet’s gravitational pull and have discovered an area where gravity is weakest. This area includes a Area of three million km²occurs in the Indian Ocean, about 1,200 km southwest of India. However, the sea level there is somehow 105 m lower than normal. This area also has a name: the Indian Ocean geoid anomaly.
Photo credit: Bangalore Institute of Sciences/Geophysical Research Letters
A plausible explanation
According to the conducted study nineteen computer simulations Movements in the earth’s mantle by researchers at the Institute of Sciences in Bangalore (India) could provide an explanation for this. Each of these simulations affects different parameters related to the magma flows in the Earth’s mantle and the changes that have occurred there. in the last 140 million years.
However, six of these scenarios correspond to the Indian Ocean geoid anomaly. It’s about Lower density magma flow and faults due to partial subsidence of the ancient Tethys tectonic plate. This tectonic plate is the remnant of the ancient ocean of the same name. Remember that 120 million years ago Africa and India separated and India moved towards the Tethys Ocean, creating what is now the Indian Ocean.
Although this research is very interesting, it must be emphasized that there is currently no technology that allows to observe the magma flows in the Earth’s mantle. In fact, this layer of earth begins at a depth of 35 km under the continents and its thickness reaches to the core. So it’s entirely possible that More mysteries are yet to be discovered about the distribution of gravity on our planet.