Monstrous structures '100 times higher than Everest' lie underneath Earth. Are they pieces of Theia?

Two colossal structures, 100 times higher than Mount Everest, are hidden inside our planet and no one knows what they are or how they were created. These continent-sized rock formations are known as blobs and are a mystery to scientists. They only know that they are different from the surrounding mantle in composition.

Geophysicists have termed these structures "large low-shear-velocity provinces" (LLSVPs), since they have noted that seismic waves slow down as they pass through them. This is a hint that they are not the same as other parts of the mantle. However, there is no clarity on whether they are more dense or lighter.

Where do these colossal mountainous structures lie inside Earth?

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Scientists have known about them since the 1970s, but not a lot has been discovered about them. However, what they do know is that they start thousands of miles below Earth's surface.

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The massive structures are located inside Earth in two places - under the Pacific Ocean and beneath Africa and parts of the Atlantic. They are so huge that if they were present on Earth, they would reach the orbit of the International Space Station.

According to University of Maryland geologist Ved Lekic, who talked to Eos reporter Jenessa Duncombe, these structures are about 100 times higher than Mount Everest. "They're among the largest things inside the Earth, and yet we literally don't know what they are, where they came from, how long they've been around, or what they do," Lekic said.

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The structures sit right where the planet's rocky lower mantle meets the molten outer core. Their effect on happenings on Earth's surface isn't clear. However, at this point inside the Earth's mantle, things get tricky, Lekic states.

"At these depths, the chemistry changes totally. For all we know there are some minerals that would become more transparent," he said.

Scientists have been trying to figure out how are these structures linked to occurrences, such as volcanoes, on Earth. Some of them believe that the blobs might be driving some volcanic hotspots, like the ones in Iceland, Hawaii, and the Galápagos Islands. Live Science quoted University of Oxford researcher Maria Tsekhmistrenko as saying that "the tips of the blobs extend into plumes of hot material that might feed these volcanic regions".

How did these blobs inside Earth form?

Some experts speculate that they might be a result of a planetary collision billions of years ago. They can be remnants of another space rock in the universe that possibly collided with Earth sometime in the early universe. A few also point fingers at Theia, the planet that is believed to have crashed into Earth billions of years ago, forming the Moon. However, there is no consensus on this and studies are still going on to ascertain what birthed these towering structures.