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IFLScience

Earth's 'conveyor belt' theory may have been wrong 165 million years ago

IFLScience
Summary
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79% Informative

A team of Cuban and Colombian geologists found ancient zircon crystals at Rapa Nui , aka Easter Island , in Polynesia .

They dated the ancient minerals as far back as 165 million years ago using radioactive decay of uranium to lead.

This suggests they came from magma with the same composition as today ’s volcanoes.

However, these volcanoes couldn’t have been active 165million years ago the plate below them is not even that old.

The team's previous research on the Galapagos Islands and New Guinea has also hinted that Earth 's mantle may be slower than expected.

VR Score

86

Informative language

93

Neutral language

32

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

54

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

long-living

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