- Northern Appalachian Anomaly is a hot rock blob 125 miles beneath the Appalachians
- The blob spans 220 miles across New England and moves 12 miles per million years southwest
- It formed 80 million years ago during Greenland and North America separation
Scientists have said that a massive, "hot blob" of rock beneath the Appalachian Mountains is slowly moving toward New York City. According to a new study published in the journal Geology, the blob is located approximately 125 miles beneath the mountains, spanning 220 miles across New England. It's officially called the Northern Appalachian Anomaly (NAA).
The blob is slowly moving southwestward at a pace of about 12 miles per million years and is expected to reach New York in approximately 10 to 15 million years.
"This thermal upwelling has long been a puzzling feature of North American geology," Tom Gernon, who is the study's lead author, Professor of Earth Science at the University of Southampton, said in a statement.
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Researchers believe the NAA formed around 80 million years ago when Greenland and North America began to separate. This challenges the previous theory that it was a leftover from when North America broke away from Africa 180 million years ago.
"Our research suggests it's part of a much larger, slow-moving process deep underground that could potentially help explain why mountain ranges like the Appalachians are still standing," Gernon said.
"Heat at the base of a continent can weaken and remove part of its dense root, making the continent lighter and more buoyant, like a hot air balloon rising after dropping its ballast. This would have caused the ancient mountains to be further uplifted over the past few million years."
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The blob's heat may have contributed to the uplift of the Appalachian Mountains, keeping them relatively high despite erosion over millions of years. According to the scientists, the crust beneath the Appalachians will likely settle, causing the mountains to lose some elevation.
"Our earlier research shows that these drips of rock can form in series, like domino stones when they fall one after the other, and sequentially migrate over time," said Sascha Brune, from the GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences in Germany.
"The feature we see beneath New England is very likely one of these drips, which originated far from where it now sits."
This discovery would help researchers explore the deep processes that shape Earth's geology and also highlight the enduring effects of ancient geological events, like continental breakups, on the planet's surface.
Scientists used a combination of direct geological observations, plate tectonics, geodynamics and computer simulations to study the NAA.
