Earth is constantly moving, although we don’t notice it. Deep beneath the ocean, far away from cities and human activity, huge geological processes are slowly reshaping the surface of our planet. A new study shows that, near the coast of Vancouver Island, a great part of the Earth’s crust is breaking apart as it sinks beneath another tectonic plate. This phenomenon is happening in a region known for its geological activity, and scientists have now observed it with more detail than ever before. So, let’s learn more about what this study shows, shall we?
What’s happening deep beneath the ocean?
Deep in the Pacific Northwest, there’s an area where a tectonic plate has sunk underneath another. This process is called subduction, and these areas are responsible for some of the biggest earthquakes and volcanoes in the world. In this case, scientists found out that the plate that’s sinking is not complete, but breaking in different parts.
For a long time, researchers suspected that some subduction areas could ‘’die’’ or stop operating with the passage of time, but they could never observe that process with so much detail until now. Thanks to new seismic data and thousands of earthquake registers, they could create a kind of image of the inside of the Earth.
How the Earth’s crust is breaking
The study shows the tectonic plate is now divided into two parts: one is known as Juan de Fuca and the other is a smaller section called the Explorer microplate. Between them lies a narrow fault zone where intense pressure is causing the crust to fracture.
The data reveal that one part is sinking faster than the other, which causes tensions leading to deep cracks and chains of earthquakes. In some areas, scientists believe that parts of the plate may already have broken off, while in others the plate is only beginning to bend and weaken.
Lead author Brandon Shuck explained that starting a subduction zone is extremely difficult, but stopping one is also challenging. He compared the process to a train: it takes a huge effort to get it moving uphill, but once it is rolling downhill, it requires something dramatic to stop it.
Earthquakes and volcanoes
Even though the news may seem worrying, scientists clarified that the current risk of big earthquakes in the region doesn’t change too much. The area can still cause strong earthquakes and tsunamis, but the new discovery helps better understand how the tectonic plates could break in the future.
Over millions of years, however, the process could create major geological changes. When pieces of a sinking plate finally detach, they leave openings called slab windows where hot material from deep inside Earth can rise upward. This may cause unusual volcanic activity and could even lift sections of the crust.
Some volcanoes in interior British Columbia already show chemical signs that might be related to these processes, although scientists say more research is needed to confirm the connection.
Earth is constantly moving
Even though these changes may sound dramatic, they happen extremely slowly (kind of at the same speed our fingernails grow). From our point of view, these changes are practically unnoticeable, but from a geological point of view, scientists have captured a rare snapshot of how a subduction zone begins to fragment and change over time.
So…
In the end, this discovery doesn’t mean something bad is about to happen — it simply reminds us that Earth is always changing, even when we can’t see it. Isn’t it incredible the many things happening right now that we are not conscious about? Nature is a remarkable phenomenon.