Scientists point out that the continents on Earth were rising.

The Earth is a living, breathing planet. It has a life of its own and is constantly changing physically. While we know that tectonic plates move horizontally, studies over the years have shown that these plates also move vertically, causing continents to rise. Although the process is slow and has been going on for millions of years, researchers are intrigued. Recently, research led by Professor Thomas Gernon was published in the journal natureHe found a plausible theory behind this phenomenon. He suggested that the breaking of tectonic plates might have caused powerful waves that would have lifted the continents by more than a kilometer.

He suggested that higher drifts like those around South Africa could be due to faults and continents breaking apart over time. “However, explaining why the interiors of continents, away from such slopes, rise and erode has proven more difficult,” Gernon said. BBC Focus on ScienceThe study found that when continents split, their crust expands, creating a “sweeping motion” that affects the base of the continent. “It’s like a piece of cake being stretched out,” the professor explained. “This deformation happens in the middle where the crust gets thinner. This causes hot material to rise from the bottom.” This hot material flows into the cooler continents and then sinks back down.

Professor Sascha Brun and Dr. Anne Glerom, part of the research team, used state-of-the-art tools to run a simulation and understand the path the phenomenon takes, according to University of SouthamptonThey were able to identify waves that had speeds that were interestingly similar to those of the erosion events responsible for the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. “Just as balloons lose weight to rise, the loss of continental material causes continents to rise – a process called isostatic,” Professor Brune explained in another explanation.

The wave also causes a kind of erosion that causes the rocks and other parts of the continent to move, thus lifting a lot of weight off of them, causing them to rise higher. This uplift has happened over billions of years, Gernon added, and tells us an impressive story of the massive changes and evolution that the continents have undergone. “That’s the really cool thing here,” he said. “These areas are the original cores of the continents, which have survived for billions and billions of years. They’ve lived through major events in Earth’s history, but for some reason after the continents broke apart they went through this huge upheaval.”

One of the noteworthy observations made by the team is that waves not only cause a kind of erosion, but also affect the climate and more. They point out that the disturbance that causes diamonds to emerge from deep within the Earth’s surface is also responsible for reshaping the landscape. The latter affects climate and even biodiversity and human settlements. “The destabilization of continental cores must have also affected ancient climates,” Gernon added. Continental uplift has certainly been an interesting phenomenon to observe and remains to be studied given the enormous impact it has on human life, wildlife and more.