COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND — Geophysicists from the University of Maryland analyzed seismic waves around the world and found large unusual structures near the Earth's core. The study was published on June 12 in the journal Science.
The team of researchers analyzed 7,000 seismograms from earthquakes of 6.5 magnitude or greater that occurred from 1990 to 2018 using Sequencer, a machine learning algorithm.
They specifically searched for echoes of seismic waves known as shear waves, or S waves, beneath the Pacific Ocean Basin.
Their results uncovered an anomalous structure under the volcanic Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. The results also showed that a previously known structure beneath the Hawaiian Islands is much larger than had been thought.