Scientist claims there's 'many more ancient structures waiting to be discovered' as lost chunk of seafloor found

Scientists made an exciting discovery hiding beneath the Pacific Ocean in Earth’s mantle.

They discovered the "fossilized fingerprint" of a chunk of seafloor, indicating that there is far more unmarked territory than they may previously have imagined. A new study shows that this fingerprint corresponds to a slab of Earth's crust that began sinking into the mantle approximately 250 million years ago, at the dawn of the age of dinosaurs.

The slab once formed part of the seafloor in the southeastern Pacific and could help answer open questions about the strange gap in the lowermost sections of the mantle - the middle layer of Earth's crust that wraps around the planet's core.

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Lead author of the study, Jingchuan Wang, a seismologist and postdoctoral associate at the University of Maryland, said in a statement: "It's giving us a glimpse into Earth's past that we've never had before."

Wang and his team discovered the slab while exploring an area beneath the East Pacific Rise - a fast-spreading mid-ocean ridge located 2,000 miles (3,200 km) off the coast of South America. They used seismic waves to examine the types of rock beneath the seafloor and create a digital cross-section of Earth's crust and mantle.

Their exploration revealed an unusually thick mantle transition zone beneath a portion of the East Pacific Rise roughly 220 miles east of Easter Island. Wang said: "This thickened area is like a fossilized fingerprint of an ancient piece of seafloor that subducted into the Earth."

"This is just the beginning," Wang said. "We believe that there are many more ancient structures waiting to be discovered in Earth's deep interior. Each one has the potential to reveal many new insights about our planet's complex past - and even lead to a better understanding of other planets beyond ours."

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