AI finds previously unknown structures on Earth in earthquake data
An AI system has discovered previously overlooked structures at the boundary between the Earth’s mantle and core in decades of data collected about earthquakes. Researchers have now been able to locate several previously unknown formations.
5000 earthquakes studied
Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences used a deep learning method to analyze more than two million seismic waveforms from around 5,000 earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater. The software identified around 174,929 weak seismic signals, which is more than ten times as many as in all previous catalogs combined. The investigation, which will take place at the end of August 2026 Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth was published, focused on so-called PKP precursors.
These are very weak signals that arise when earthquake waves scatter from irregularities near the boundary between the Earth’s solid mantle and the Earth’s liquid outer core. This so-called core-mantle boundary lies around 2,900 kilometers below the Earth’s surface. The signals arrive at measuring stations shortly before a stronger main wave and can easily be lost in the seismic noise.
The researchers first trained their system using examples evaluated by humans. The system then searched through the historical measurement data and was gradually improved with further human review. In this way, the scientists were also able to examine regions for which little or no relevant data had previously been evaluated. Six areas in particular stood out that had not previously been documented. The researchers referred to them as B1 to B6. They lie under Eurasia, Central Asia and the South Atlantic, among others. While previous studies had found isolated anomalies, more extensive data collection suggests larger, sometimes belt-shaped zones.
Origin unclear
What exactly causes these structures is still unclear. Possible examples include remnants of old earth plates that have reached deep into the mantle as a result of plate tectonics, or areas with partially melted rock. The chemical composition and temperature there could also differ significantly from the surrounding mantle. There is also some speculation that such regions could contain material from the hypothetical protoplanet Theia, which is said to have collided with the young Earth billions of years ago and triggered the formation of the moon. However, the current study provides no evidence of this.
The seismic data show differences deep within the Earth, but do not reveal their origin. The researchers see their method primarily as a new tool for exploring the Earth’s interior. The growing catalog could enable more detailed models of the deepest mantle of the Earth in the future and, in the long term, could also be used to study other celestial bodies, provided that sufficient seismic measurement data is available there.
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