Study Suggests the Atlantic Ocean Is Expanding by a Couple of Inches Every Year Due to a Massive Upwelling

The Atlantic Ocean is expanding at a rate of about 1.5 inches annually due to a massive upwelling of material from over 600 kilometers beneath the Earth's crust, stated Phys Org. The findings are significant in explaining the mysterious forces that have been causing North and South America to drift further away from Europe and Africa. Scientists from the University of Southampton have found evidence of an extraordinary geological process more than 600 kilometers beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Their research reveals that hot material from the Earth's mantle is actively pushing the continental plates apart, challenging previous assumptions about how ocean basins expand.
"This was completely unexpected. It has broad implications for our understanding of Earth's evolution and habitability," said Dr. Kate Rychert, one of the lead researchers on the study, stated Phys Org. The team's findings emerged from an ambitious project that deployed 39 seismometers across the ocean floor, creating the first large-scale, high-resolution imaging of the mantle beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In the standard view of plate tectonics, ocean expansion is driven mainly by the pull of gravity, as denser plates sink back into the Earth. But the Atlantic Ocean was a bit of a mystery because it does not have those dense, sinking plates that usually do the job. The new research finally explains this geological mystery.

Data from two consecutive research cruises aboard the RV Langseth and RRV Discovery collected by embarked scientists would lead them to a remarkable finding. They discovered that material from more than 410 kilometers depth was welling up through the mantle transition zone, which is generally an impermeable barrier to vertical motion, according to Business Insider. Higher-than-expected temperatures had thinned this barrier, allowing the material to force its way upwards and drive the continents apart. "There is a growing distance between North America and Europe, and it is not driven by political or philosophical differences—it is caused by mantle convection!" commented Dr. Nick Harmon, pointing out the purely geological nature of this drift of the continents, according to Phys Org. The process started roughly 200 million years ago when the supercontinent Pangaea began to break up, and it is still reshaping the surface of our planet.
The mid-Atlantc ridge on Iceland (Thingvellir National Park). Because of seafloor spreading and the movement of the ocean floor and of the continents outward from the ridge, the Atlantic Basin is widening at an estimated rate of 1 to 10 cm (0.5 to 4 inches) a year. pic.twitter.com/MPMpbnG0JV
— Toe-Knee 🇨🇦 (@TonyLea17) February 7, 2022
The results obtained in this work are important to understand the structure of Earth, for the elaboration of better models that can be used in predictions related to natural disasters like earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions, and to research how plate tectonics influences sea level with significant implications for long-term climate change predictions. The finding gives evidence, however, that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is involved actively in plate tectonics more than ever thought before. "This work refutes long-held assumptions that mid-ocean ridges might play a passive role in plate tectonics," said Professor Mike Kendall of the University of Oxford. "It suggests that in places such as the Mid-Atlantic, forces at the ridge play an important role in driving newly-formed plates apart," stated Phys Org.