A new study has revealed that changes are happening under the Earth’s surface in India, suggesting that the Indian Continental Plate could be splitting into two. Rather than breaking apart horizontally, scientists believe that the split is occurring vertically, with the plate separating into different layers.
The formation of the Tibetan Plateau has been a topic of much debate in the scientific community. At the American Geophysical Union conference in December, a new theory was presented suggesting that the Indian Plate is “delaminating.” This would mean that one section of the plate would explain the high altitude of Tibet, while the other would descend into the Earth’s mantle.
Researchers, led by Simon Klemperer of Stanford University, discovered a pattern of helium levels in Tibetan springs during their study. This pattern indicated that the mantle was close enough to the Earth’s surface for rare helium-3 to emerge in northern Tibet, while the more common helium-4 was present in southern Tibet, suggesting that the plate has not split there yet.
Professor Douwe van Hinsbergen of Utrecht University, not involved in the study, highlighted the significance of these findings in the field of solid earth science. He commented that the behavior of continents in this way was a fundamental discovery that was previously unknown.
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