This year, scientists have uncovered some of Earth’s best-kept secrets. They found hidden rivers, chunks of lost continents and remnants of ancient rainforests, and they delved into the planet’s ancient history using the very latest technologies. Who knows what they’ll dig up next! While we wait to find out, here are 10 of the geological discoveries that turned our world upside down in 2020.
Historical super eruption in Yellowstone
Yellowstone’s hot spot lurks beneath the national park’s geysers and hot springs, and about 9 million years ago the volcano exploded in two historical super eruptions, scientists found. After analyzing ancient volcanic rocks and volcanic deposits in the region, the team uncovered evidence of two previously unknown eruptions, which they named the McMullen Creek super eruption and the Gray’s Landing super eruption. The Gray’s Landing eruption shattered records as the largest eruption of the Yellowstone hotspot ever detected; About 8.72 million years ago, the eruption covered about 14,000 square miles of what is now southern Idaho and northern Nevada with volcanic debris.
Monstrous blobs near Earth’s core are bigger than we thought
Clumps of continental-size rock sit on the boundary of Earth’s solid mantle and liquid outer core, and now scientists think they might be bigger than we could ever have imagined. Previous estimates have suggested that the two largest blobs would be 100 times larger than Mount Everest if they were pulled to the planet’s surface. But after studying decades of seismic data from earthquakes, scientists now estimate that the great blob beneath the Pacific might be much more monstrous. For example, a newly discovered structure along the edge of the blob measures more than 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) wide.
Lost islands in the North Sea have endured a massive tsunami
About 8,000 years ago, a tsunami struck a plain between Great Britain and the Netherlands, flooding most of the region. But research suggests some islands do withstood the tsunami, a home to Stone Age people for thousands of years. Although they remained above water for some time after the tsunami, rising sea levels eventually submerged the islands about 1,000 years later. Scientists found that the lost islands only survived the tsunami after collecting sediment from the seabed near the eastern English mouth of the River Ouse.
Related: Changing the Earth: 7 Ideas to Geo-engineer Our Planet
The core of the Earth is a billion years old
Earth’s solid inner core – a 1,500-mile-wide (2,442 km) ball of iron – is likely circular in shape 1 billion to 1.3 billion years agoscientists estimate. By simulating the conditions at the core on a tiny scale, the team was able to calculate how long it would take for a blob of molten iron to build up to the core’s current size. The time window of about 1 billion years nicely matches historical fluctuations in the planet’s magnetic field, which intensified significantly between 1 billion and 1.5 billion years ago. The crystallization of the inner core may have provided this boost of magnetism, as the process would have released heat to the liquid outer core; heat drives a swirling movement in the liquid that then drives the magnetic field.
Related: The core of the Earth is a billion years old
Piece of a lost continent found beneath Canada
About 150 million years ago, a now-lost continent disintegrated into huge fragments – and a large piece was recently discovered lurking beneath Canada. Scientists made the discovery while studying a type of diamond-bearing volcanic rock called kimberlite that was collected nearly 400 kilometers below Baffin Island in northern Canada. The mineral chemistry of the kimberlite matched that of the long-lost continent, making the sample site the deepest point where evidence of the continent had ever been found.
Related: Piece of lost continent discovered under Canada
Underwater rivers found near Australia
This year scientists discovered huge rivers of cold, salty water that flows from the Australian coast into the deep ocean. The rivers, which researchers discovered using autonomous underwater vehicles, are created when shallow waters off the coast lose heat in winter. Evaporation during the summer months makes this shallow water more salty than deep water, so when it cools, the dense, salty water sinks and winds through the ocean like an underwater river. These rivers stretch for thousands of miles and carry nutrients, plant and animal matter and pollutants into the ocean.
Related: Huge underwater rivers have been discovered off the coast of Australia
Ancient rainforest found under Antarctic ice
Antarctica may be the last place you would expect to find remains of an ancient rainforest, but that’s exactly what scientists discovered under the west side of the continent. The remains of the forest were discovered in a sediment core drilled from a seabed near Pine Island Glacier. A layer of sediment in the core stood out from the rest, as the color was markedly different from that around it; On closer inspection, scientists found ancient pollen, spores, pieces of flowering plants and a network of roots in the layer. The monster dates back 90 million years to the mid-Cretaceous period, when the now frozen Antarctica had a much milder climate.
Related: Remains of 90 million year old rainforest discovered under Antarctic ice
Ancient seabed buried 400 miles below China
A seabed that once lined the bottom of the Pacific Ocean has been found buried hundreds of kilometers below China, where it descends further into the transition zone of the Earth’s mantle. The boulder once sat atop the oceanic lithosphere, the outermost layer of the Earth’s surface, but was pushed down when it collided with a neighboring tectonic plate, in what is called a subduction event. Scientists had never discovered a subduction event so deep below the planet’s surface, at depths ranging from 254 to 410 miles (410 to 660 km) underground.
Related: An ancient fragment of the Pacific Ocean found 400 miles below China
Lost tectonic plate resurrected?
Scientists digital reconstructed a tectonic plate and showed that its movement probably gave rise to an arc of volcanoes in the Pacific some 60 million years ago. In the past, some geophysicists have argued that the slab, known as Resurrection, never existed. But if it existed, the plate would have been pushed beneath the Earth’s crust tens of millions of years ago; so using computer reconstruction, scientists have reversed that motion, virtually pulling these and other old plates back to the surface. They found that Resurrection would fit like a perfect puzzle piece, just east of two plates called Kula and Farallon, and that the rim matches ancient volcanic belts in Washington and Alaska state.
Related: ‘Lost’ tectonic plate called Resurrection hidden under the Pacific Ocean
The towering coral structure eclipses the Empire State Building
The first free-standing coral reef discovered in over 100 years, it stands taller than the Empire State Building. With a height of 500 meters from base to tip, the coral tower stands quite close to the rest of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. The leaf-like structure is 1 mile (1.5 km) wide at the base and the top is about 130 feet (40 m) below the surface of the sea.
Related: Coral ‘tower’ taller than the Empire State Building discovered off the Australian coast
Originally published on Live Science.