The Atlantic Ocean Is Hiding a 500-Kilometer Canyon, Scientists May Have Finally Found What Created It
The Daily Galaxy • • science
Key Points:
- The King’s Trough complex, a massive canyon system about 1,000 kilometers off Portugal’s coast, has puzzled geologists for decades due to its immense size and unclear origin.
- New high-resolution sonar mapping and volcanic rock analysis indicate the trough formed 37 to 24 million years ago along a temporary tectonic plate boundary that caused intense fracturing and stretching of the seafloor.
- The plate boundary later shifted southward, ceasing the geological activity that shaped the trough, which includes notable features like Peake Deep and Freen Deep.
- Researchers identified a mantle plume beneath the region, likely an early branch of the Azores plume, whose heat weakened the crust and facilitated tectonic fracturing in the area.
