Part 5/7:
Nevertheless, the latest research revealed remnants of tectonic plates in locations previously considered unlikely, both under vast oceans and deep within continents, away from the established plate boundaries. This revelation was made possible through an advanced high-resolution model developed with the help of a supercomputer in Switzerland.
By analyzing various types of seismic waves generated by earthquakes, scientists mapped the inner structure of the Earth using a process called full-waveform inversion. Given the impossibility of drilling down to the mantle— the layer between the crust and the core—the geophysicists are left to form hypotheses about what these plate remnants might signify.