According to research just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), the distinctive pink color of the sand in Papua New Guinea is due to the garnet composition of the sand, which is also what makes the garnets that humans love. prefer. To let the sands filled with crystals like this come to the world, this land once “escaped” from once… being swallowed by the Earth.
Garnet sand on the coast of an island in Papua New Guinea – (Photo provided by the research team).
Phys.org says a team of authors led by Professor Suzanne Baldwin from the Department of Earth and Environment, Syracusel University of Arts and Sciences explains that this garnet material came from a place very deep below the surface. Earth’s surface, up to 120 km, which is part of the planet’s mantle. Our Earth consists of 3 main layers: core, mantle and crust. Core can also be divided into inner core, outer core; Coating can be divided into inner coating and outer coating.
According to a summary in Science Daily, the rock profile of the strange pink beach shows that the piece of continent that made up the mysterious island was pushed underground by tectonic processes less than 10 million years ago, then push up to the ground again, carrying the material of the mantle. This is an important detail that helps the authors learn about the strange geological history of the area. Swallowing and completely “recycling” a piece of the continent in a period of 10 million years is extremely short for a geological cycle.
The reason for the vibrant plate tectonic activity in the islands of Papua New Guinea is because the country lies right at the boundary between tectonic plates. Research is still ongoing in the hope of finding out the pace of Earth’s rock recycling, as well as understanding how our planet is worth and will change.
Previous studies have shown that the Earth’s crust is made up of at least 15 large and small tectonic plates. The plaques are constantly in motion, being swallowed and then ejected in a process called “subduction”. The Earth is said to be entering a period of exciting sea change, the continents show signs of transforming themselves to form a supercontinent, as subduction shrinks the oceans between them, while “releases” “ out other pieces on the opposite side to form a super ocean.