A new Nature study proposes that convection currents in Earth's mantle uplifted and then subsided entire continents over hundreds of millions of years, exposing ancient rocks to glacial erosion before burying them under younger sediments. This mechanism may explain the Great Unconformity—a massive gap in the geologic record visible across North America, northern Europe, and China.
Background
The Great Unconformity is one of geology's most persistent mysteries, representing up to a billion years of missing rock record across vast regions. Previous hypotheses centered on surface processes like glaciation alone, but this study links it to deep-Earth mantle dynamics.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Nov 7, 2026 at 04:24 AM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10