Six unusual structures identified at Earth's core-mantle boundary with the help of deep learning
Since scientists can't drill 2,900 km (1,800 miles) to the boundary between Earth's core and deep mantle, they must use information relayed by seismic waves recorded during earthquakes to study this region. In a new study published in the journal JGR Solid Earth, a group of scientists used deep learning to study a large set of a specific type of seismic wave. The analysis revealed six continuous…
Scientists have discovered six unusual structures at Earth's core-mantle boundary using deep learning techniques applied to seismic data. Monitoring this region is crucial as it governs heat flow, mantle circulation, and volcanic plume formation. Traditional methods to study this inaccessible area involve analyzing seismic waves, but manual inspection is time-consuming and limited in coverage.
A recent study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth utilized deep learning to analyze over 2 million seismic recordings spanning from 1990 to 2024. By filtering out poor-quality records and classifying waveform data for PKP precursors—weak seismic waves that typically arrive before stronger ones—the researchers identified 174,929 PKP precursor signals.
This new catalog revealed six broad belts of likely heterogeneity at the core-mantle boundary, including areas beneath the North Atlantic, northern Eurasia, the South Atlantic, Southern Africa, the Pacific, and around Antarctica. The findings suggest that the lowermost mantle's structure is influenced by ancient subducted slabs, chemical segregation, and localized melting.
However, the maps show probable scattering regions rather than exact outlines of hidden structures, and coverage is uneven due to the uneven distribution of seismic stations and earthquakes globally.
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