A geology PhD scholar at Utrecht University has rebuild an ancient and antecedently unsung tectonic plate , thought to once have been a quarter of the sizing of the Pacific Ocean .
As architectonic plate move , turgid ancient oceanic plate can fall underneath other plates , known as " subduction " . Though largely hidden from the control surface , these ancient subducted home can leave fragments in underseamountain ranges , where architectonic home plate shift aside and molten rockeruptsup to the surface to mould a ridge .
Suzanna van de Lagemaat studied the area around the Philippines , where such outbreak have happened . “ The Philippines is located at a complex junction of different plate systems , " van de Lagemaat explained in astatement . " The region almost entirely consists of pelagic insolence , but some pieces are raised above sea level , and show stone of very different ages . ”
The Pontus oceanic plate reconstructed to show its location in the Pacific Ocean 120 million years ago.Image credit: Suzanna van de Lagemaat, Utrecht University
Reconstructing crustal plate movement between Japan and New Zealand using geologic data , she found that the ancient collection plate that was once there would have been gigantic before it disappeared . Eleven years ago , a team looking at seismic data in the arena discover signaling disruptions , which can occur as seismal waves pass through submerse tectonic plate , and identified an ancient subduction geographical zone . Studying sample collected in Borneo , van de Lagemaat and team realize they were n’t part of a known plate .
“ We recollect we were take with relics of a lost denture that we already know about . But our magnetic lab research on those rocks indicated that our finds were originally from much further north , and had to be leftover of a unlike , previously unknown plate , " van de Lagemaat explained .
The research propose that the plate stretched from southerly Japan to New Zealand for at least 150 million years , with the remains of the scale – now key out Pontus – also site on Palawan island in the Western Philippines , and the South China Sea . The team was surprised to give away that they had already had sample distribution .
“ Eleven long time ago , we call up that the remainder of Pontus might lie down in northern Japan , but we ’d since refuted that theory , ” Douwe van Hinsbergen , Van de Lagemaat ’s PhD supervisor , said . “ It was only after Suzanna had systematically rebuild half of the ‘ Ring of Fire ’ mountain belts from Japan , through New Guinea , to New Zealand that the advise Pontus plate give away itself , and it include the rocks we studied on Borneo . ”
The study is bring out inGondwana Research .
