Since 1954, the Spanish city of Granada has been shaken by powerful earthquakes five times. What was unusual was not only their number, but also their incredible depth - more than 600 kilometers.
The mystery of these anomalous tremors remained unsolved for a long time. The answers to these questions were found by an international team of scientists from the University of Science and Technology of China and the Australian National University. This was reported by “MIR 24” with reference to Seismic Record.
According to scientists, the African and Eurasian plates are not just colliding, but moving towards each other. The descending plate sinks into the Earth's mantle, where chemical reactions occur due to pressure and temperature.
Tectonic plates in the region move at a speed of 70 mm per year. This is impressively fast by geological standards. Such a high speed of plate movement contributed to the fact that a fragment of the earth’s crust turned over, dragging along a “pocket” of water.
Researchers claim that a fragment of a plate under the Mediterranean Sea has completely turned over. The silicate side of the slab, which is usually on top, is now at the bottom.