Tag Archives: primordial

Volcano Erupts, Unleashing Remnants of Earth’s Primordial Magma Ocean

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Submarine Relief from Mayotte Survey 2019: Fani Maore Volcano

Credit: Campagne MAYOBS2

Recent discoveries reveal that undersea volcanoes off Madagascar’s coast are releasing chemical signatures from Earth’s primordial magma ocean. This magma ocean formed during the planet’s first 100 million years, offering insights into early Earth’s history.

Geologists posit that the Earth’s mantle—a vast layer of heated rock beneath the crust—has been slowly churning for over four billion years, gradually erasing chemical traces from Earth’s early formation.

“This discovery will significantly change our understanding in earth science,” states Catherine Chauvel from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris. “We now have proof that material dating back 4.5 billion years still exists in sufficient quantities to be studied in volcanic systems.”

During the Hadean era, a Mars-sized object collided with Earth, generating intense heat and forming a global magma ocean. As the molten rock solidified over millions of years, the oldest crust began to emerge.

While some scientists believed remnants of this primordial crystallization remained in the mantle, they lacked the analytical methods to confirm it, according to Chauvel.

An unusual swarm of earthquakes in May 2018 off Mayotte Island, located between Madagascar and Mozambique, led to the discovery of a new volcano, Fani Maore, approximately 50 kilometers eastward. Over the subsequent three years, eruptions released significant magma, causing the island to sink around 20 centimeters.

Chauvel and her research team collected volcanic rock samples from both Fani Maore and nearby Mayotte Island to analyze the chemical composition of the new volcano versus older volcanic systems. Collaborating with Claudine Israel, they are employing cutting-edge ultra-high precision techniques at the University of Cambridge to assess variations in neodymium isotopes, which preserve a chemical record of the crystallization process from Earth’s primordial magma ocean.

Initial findings indicate that Fani Maore’s lava has a higher proportion of neodymium-142 and neodymium-144 compared to that from Mayotte, suggesting pockets in the ancient mantle have remained undisturbed by billions of years of geological mixing. These pockets are relatively rich in bridgmanite, a mineral believed to have first crystallized from Earth’s primordial magma ocean.

“Finding something that has eluded others is always thrilling,” remarks Chauvel.

This discovery implies that Earth’s mantle may not have mixed as extensively as previously thought, thus aiding scientists in reconstructing how Earth’s primordial magma ocean solidified, according to Israel.

“We experimentally demonstrate how the mantle crystallizes from a magma ocean, creating chemical diversity from the very beginning,” she notes.

Tim Johnson at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, claims that this finding serves as compelling evidence that Earth’s mantle still houses ancient material. “This is a significant breakthrough,” he asserts.

“Despite the challenges in perfecting such technology, the results are impressive,” adds Bernard Bourdon from CNRS in Lyon.

This research provides unprecedented insights into an era of Earth’s history with limited direct evidence, akin to uncovering a core sample that made its way to the surface, Bourdon concludes.

According to Richard Carlson from Carnegie Science in Washington, D.C., the accuracy of this study is remarkable. “Those familiar with these measurements will recognize this achievement as substantial,” he remarks.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Exploring Ultra-High-Energy Neutrinos: A Potential Window into Primordial Black Hole Explosions

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Physicists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have proposed that the ultrahigh-energy neutrinos detected by the KM3NeT experiment may indicate an exploding “sub-extreme primordial black hole,” hinting at new physics beyond the Standard Model.

The KM3NeT experiment observed neutrinos with energies around 100 PeV, and IceCube detected five neutrinos exceeding 1 PeV. The explosion of a primordial black hole may account for these high-energy neutrinos. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Black holes are a well-understood phenomenon, originating when a massive star exhausts its fuel and undergoes a supernova explosion, resulting in a gravitational force strong enough to trap light. These traditional black holes are massive and relatively stable.

However, as noted by physicist Stephen Hawking in 1970, primordial black holes potentially formed not from stars, but from the universe’s primordial conditions following the Big Bang.

Theoretical in nature, primordial black holes are dense enough that light cannot escape. Surprisingly, they are expected to be significantly lighter than the black holes observed to date.

Hawking also demonstrated that when these primordial black holes heat up, they emit particles through a phenomenon known as Hawking radiation.

“The lighter the black hole, the hotter it becomes, leading to increased particle emission,” explained Dr. Andrea Tam, a physicist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

“As a primordial black hole evaporates, it becomes lighter and hotter, releasing even more radiation during the explosive process.”

“What our telescope detects is, in fact, Hawking radiation.”

“If we were to witness such an explosion, we would create a comprehensive catalog of all elementary particles in existence, confirming both known particles, like electrons and quarks, and those not yet observed, including hypothesized dark matter particles.”

In 2023, the KM3NeT experiment successfully detected this elusive neutrino—a result Dr. Tam and his team had anticipated.

However, a challenge arose from the IceCube experiment, which failed to record similar phenomena or approach even a fraction of KM3NeT’s findings.

If primordial black holes are prevalent and detonating often, why are we not inundated with high-energy neutrinos? What could explain this inconsistency?

Dr. Joaquín Iguazu Juan, a physicist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, suggested, “We believe a primordial black hole with a ‘dark charge’, termed a quasi-extreme primordial black hole, could bridge this gap.”

“Dark charge mimics standard electric force but features a heavy hypothesized electron, the dark electron.”

Dr. Michael Baker, also from UMass Amherst, remarked, “Our dark charge model is complex but may provide a more accurate depiction of reality.”

“It’s remarkable that our model explains this previously unexplainable phenomenon.”

Dr. Tam added, “Dark-charged primordial black holes possess unique properties that differentiate them from simpler primordial black hole models, allowing us to resolve all conflicting experimental data.”

The research team is optimistic that their dark charge model not only elucidates neutrino observations but also addresses the enigma of dark matter.

“Observations of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background imply the existence of some form of dark matter,” explained Baker.

“If our dark charge hypothesis holds, it could suggest a considerable number of primordial black holes, aligning with other astrophysical observations and accounting for the universe’s missing dark matter,” Dr. Iguazu-Juan stated.

“The detection of high-energy neutrinos represents a significant breakthrough,” remarked Baker.

“It opens a new window into the universe, enabling us to empirically verify Hawking radiation, gather evidence of primordial black holes, and explore particles beyond the Standard Model, while inching closer to solving the dark matter mystery.”

For more details, see the findings published in Physical Review Letters.

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Michael J. Baker and colleagues. We explain the PeV neutrino flux in KM3NeT and IceCube with quasi-extreme primordial black holes. Physics. Pastor Rhett, published online December 18, 2025. doi: 10.1103/r793-p7ct

Source: www.sci.news

Astrophysicists study planets, asteroids, and primordial black holes in Earth’s matter

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Primordial black holes have been theorized for decades and may even be the eternally elusive dark matter. However, primordial black holes have not yet been observed. These tiny black holes could become trapped in rocky planets or asteroids, consuming their liquid cores from within and leaving hollow structures behind, according to a duo of astrophysicists from the University at Buffalo, Case Western Reserve University, and National Donghua University. It is said that there is. Alternatively, microtunnels could be left in very old rocks on Earth, or in the glass or other solid structures of very old buildings.

An artist's impression of a primordial black hole. Image credit: NASA.

Small primordial black holes are perhaps the most intriguing and intriguing relics of the early universe.

They could act as candidates for dark matter, be sources of primordial gravitational waves, and help solve cosmological problems such as domain walls and the magnetic monopole problem.

However, so far no convincing primordial black hole candidates have been observed.

Professor Dejan Stojković of the University at Buffalo said: “Although the chances of finding these signatures are low, the search does not require many resources and the potential reward of providing the first evidence of a primordial black hole is enormous. It's going to become something.”

“We need to think outside the box because what has been done so far to find primordial black holes has not worked.”

Professor Stojkovic and colleague Dr. De Zhang Dai, of Case Western Reserve University and National Donghua University, are investigating how large hollow asteroids can grow without collapsing, and whether a primordial black hole is The probability of passing was calculated. Earth.

“Because of such long odds, we have focused on hard traces that have existed for thousands, millions, or even billions of years,” Dr. Dai said. .

“If the object has a liquid central core, a trapped primordial black hole could absorb the liquid core, whose density is higher than that of the outer solid layer,” Professor Stojković added.

“In that case, if the object was hit by an asteroid, the primordial black hole could escape from the object, leaving only a hollow shell.”

But would such a shell be strong enough to support itself, or would it simply collapse under its own tension?

Comparing the strength of natural materials such as granite and iron to their surface tension and surface density, the researchers found that such hollow objects could be less than one-tenth the radius of the Earth, making them smaller than normal We calculated that it was more likely to be an asteroid than a planet. .

“If it gets any bigger, it will collapse,” Professor Stojković said.

“These hollow objects could potentially be detected with telescopes. The mass, and therefore the density, can be determined by studying the objects' trajectories.”

“If an object's density is too low for its size, that's a good sign that it's hollow.”

For objects without a liquid core, the primordial black hole could simply pass through, leaving a straight microtunnel behind.

For example, a primordial black hole with mass 10twenty two grams, leaving a tunnel 0.1 microns thick.

Large slabs of metal or other materials could serve as effective black hole detectors by monitoring the sudden appearance of these tunnels, but very old materials from buildings that are hundreds of years old Searching for existing tunnels has a higher probability. From the oldest to rocks that are billions of years old.

Still, even assuming that dark matter is indeed composed of primordial black holes, they calculated that the probability that a primordial black hole would pass through a billion-year-old rock is 0.000001.

“You have to compare costs and benefits. Does it cost a lot of money to do this? No, it doesn't,” Professor Stojković said.

“So, to say the least, it's unlikely that a primordial black hole will pass through you during your lifetime. Even if you did, you probably wouldn't notice.”

“Unlike rocks, human tissue has a small amount of tension, so the primordial black hole won't tear it apart.”

“And while the kinetic energy of a primordial black hole may be huge, it is moving so fast that it cannot release much of that energy during a collision.”

“If a projectile is moving through a medium faster than the speed of sound, the molecular structure of the medium has no time to react.”

“If you throw a rock through a window, it will probably break. If you shoot a window with a gun, it will probably just leave a hole.”

team's paper Published in a magazine physics of the dark universe.

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De Chan Dai and Dejan Stojković. 2024. We're looking for planets, asteroids, and tiny primordial black holes on Earth. physics of the dark universe 46: 101662;doi: 10.1016/j.dark.2024.101662

Source: www.sci.news