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What is happening beneath the Earth? Is the Pacific Ocean fragmenting? These questions have been circulating on the internet after a group of scientists from Louisiana State University (LSU) observed in detail how a subduction zone is beginning to fragment beneath the Pacific Ocean.
The finding, made in the Cascadia zone, off the coast of Vancouver in the North Pacific, shows a tectonic plate that is slowly breaking apart and could help explain how these enormous geological systems eventually disappear at some point in history, with slow but significant evolutions.
The research focused on the northern end of the Cascadia subduction zone, where the Juan de Fuca and Explorer plates move beneath the North American plate.
Scientists found multiple fractures in the oceanic plate, and one of them reaches about 75 kilometers in length, with a displacement of approximately five kilometers.
In order to monitor these structures hidden beneath the seafloor, scientists used data from the 2021 CASIE21 experiment; from the vessel Marcus G. Langseth, sound waves were sent toward the ocean floor while an underwater cable recorded the echoes to build high-resolution seismic images.
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The images revealed that the plate sinking beneath the American continent in the north is not a continuous structure and is traversed by faults and fractures that are progressively segmenting it.
In addition to these findings, scientists found that earthquake records show that some sectors of the rupture still exhibit seismic activity, while others remain undisturbed.
That contrast could be one of the most important clues in the study. Researchers suggest that some fragments may have already separated enough, causing said 75-kilometer fissure, to stop transmitting tension in the same way. Instead of disappearing all at once, the plate may be breaking apart in sections.
So-called transform faults would play a fundamental role in this process. In the research, they are described as structures where blocks of the crust slide laterally and, in the case of Cascadia, can act as boundaries that segment the oceanic plate as it continues its descent into the Earth's interior.
Scientists describe this mechanism as an episodic or staged termination of subduction.
Do these findings mean that the Cascadia subduction zone will disappear? Is there a risk to inhabitants? Researchers deny that Cascadia will disappear or cause fierce earthquakes in the short term, as the fragmentation occurs on a scale of millions of years.
However, they state that the zone is in constant change and is currently undergoing a process that would end in its disappearance as it is known and the formation of microplates.
[Publicidad]