Theusage of super computer modeling of the earth’s crust and upper mantle of theearth suggests that old geological events had left deep scars on the earth’scrust which may be the reasons for an earthquake, mountain building and otherrunning processes that play a role on our planet. Thisstudy changes the widely held view that only interactions at the boundariesbetween the continental tectonic plates could be responsible for such events. Groupsof scientists at the Universities of Toronto and Aberdeen have generatedmodels, which propose that the former plate boundaries have stayed unseen deep belowthe earth’s surface. These ancient structures, which are at locations outsideof the existing plate boundaries, are variations in the structures and theproperties at the surface in the internal areas of continents. 4)Why or how is this study relevant to the average world citizen or American? Thisstudy is relevant to every citizen on this world because it affects the wholeplanet.
Every single spot on this earth can be affected by this study. Weatherit’s an earthquake, sinkhole, tsunami or mountain building process; they allimpact the world and every human being on it. This study cannot only readmovements and causes for these geological events in the past, but also predictthese events in the future. “Future exploration of what lies in the mantlebeneath the crust may lead to further such discoveries on how our planet works,generating a greater understanding of how the past may affect our geologicfuture,” says Heron. And that’s why it’s so important, it might be possibleto prevent a fatal catastrophic geological incident. For example an earthquake,the computer modeling wouldn’t stop the earthquake, but it could warn thepeople a week or couple days before and provide enough time to evacuate theirhomes.
Thousand of lives could be saved annually with information like these inthat study. Besides saving lives, it would also help our infrastructures. Ifarchitectures know that a mountain building process is occurring and that itmight cause lifting of certain terrains and/or earthquakes over the next 200years, then they wouldn’t build roads or buildings on that zone. Allin all, this study influences the whole world and every organism on it.
Ibelieve it still needs time and more research to develop into a completecorrect predicting computer model, but I also think the scientists are on agreat start with that study.
