Earth's Continents Are Slowly Peeling Away Below, And Here's Why

Geoscientists have solved an age-old mystery of oceanic volcanism and plate tectonics, explaining why some islands contain so much continental material despite their distance from continental plates.

According to simulations and chemical analyses led by the University of Southampton, these perplexing mechanisms occur as the continents are peeled from below by Earth's restless tectonic forces , through slow, rolling 'mantle waves.'

When continental plates rift and drift apart, the hot and (incredibly) slow-flowing upper mantle strips them at their roots. This scoured material is then carried far, where it enriches the oceanic mantle and fuels volcanism for eons.

"We've known for decades that parts of the mantle beneath the oceans look strangely contaminated, as if pieces of ancient con