Strange Cracks and Dents on Turkey’s Central Anatolian Plateau Indicate the Earth’s Crust is Gradually Sinking.
According to Science Alert, on the Central Anatolian Plateau in Turkey, beneath a depression known as the Konya Basin, a research team led by geophysicist Julia Andersen from the University of Toronto (Canada) discovered evidence that the Earth’s crust is gradually sinking.
This process is shaping not only the geological surface of the basin but also the surrounding plateau.
This prompted them to examine other geophysical data beneath the surface and reveal seismic anomalies indicating changes in the upper part of the mantle, representing a phenomenon known as “asthenospheric dripping.”
Lake Tuz in the Konya Basin, Central Anatolian Plateau, Turkey – (Photo: PHYS).
According to a paper published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, this occurs when the lower part of the Earth’s rocky crust is heated to a certain temperature and becomes somewhat viscous.
Then, similar to drops of honey or syrup, it slowly flows down, falling into the planet’s “belly.”
Although the scale of the material being consumed is much smaller than tectonic plates subducting due to plate tectonics, these drops of the Earth’s crust are still immensely large, enough to cause significant disturbances below.
As these drops flow down the mantle, they alter the temperature, chemical composition, density, and viscosity of that section, causing it to deform and creating a diffuse topographic change: some areas are uplifted while others sink.
In the area studied by the scientists, the Konya Basin is sinking about 20 mm per year, while the entire Central Anatolian Plateau has been uplifted about 1 km over the past 10 million years.
In other words, the “drops” of the Earth’s crust that fall into the Konya Basin create an effect similar to a droplet falling onto a still lake, causing the surrounding water surface to rise.
Furthermore, a broader examination of the surrounding area also indicates that the “drop” of the Earth’s crust forming Konya is just the second droplet, smaller than the first one in the past.
Evidence of this first droplet lies in a larger area of the plateau, which is in the process of recovering from that initial droplet.
Description of changes caused by the asthenospheric dripping phenomenon in the past and today – (Photo: NATURE COMMUNICATION)
This dripping phenomenon will continue in the future, with some other “sub-drops” seemingly forming in various areas of this vast plateau. Certainly, tens to hundreds of millions of years from now, this area will have a very different appearance than today.
