A previously unknown layer of partially molten rock has been detected beneath Earth’s crust. The discovery could help scientists learn more about the motions of Earth’s tectonic plates.

New research from the University of Houston reevaluates the role of the asthenosphere in tectonic plate movement. According to the new study published in Nature Communications by scientists from the ...

"The molten layer is located about 100 miles from the surface and is part of the asthenosphere, which sits under the Earth’s tectonic plates in the upper mantle," a UT press release notes.

“But what we found is that even where the melt fraction is quite high, its effect on mantle flow is very minor.” For the study, the researchers examined data obtained from seismic stations all over ...

They found that rather than holding small areas of melt, the asthenosphere appears to contain a partially melted layer that extends around the globe, under at least 44% of the planet.

Effect of water on seismic attenuation of the upper mantle: The origin of the sharp lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , 2023; 120 (32) DOI: 10. ...

Nozomu Takeuchi and colleagues at the University of Tokyo, Kobe University, and the Japan Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Technology, analysed the attenuation of seismic waves as they propagated ...

But a team of geologists at has found that layer is actually ... of the asthenosphere under the Caribbean. They found a hot "river of rocks" being squeezed from the Pacific Ocean through a ...

HOUSTON -- (May 29, 2018) -- New simulations of Earth's asthenosphere find that convective cycling and pressure-driven flow can sometimes cause the planet's most fluid layer of mantle to move even ...

Sea-floor magnetotelluric data are used to image the electrical conductivity of the lithosphere–asthenosphere boundary offshore of Nicaragua; a high-conductivity layer confined to depths of 45 ...

The molten layer is found in the upper mantle at a depth of around 100 miles - and is present under nearly half of the Earth's surface, researchers said.