Missing Chunk of Ancient Earth From 160M Years Ago 'Pontus' Tectonic Plate Revealed as Modern-Day Borneo Via Tomography

The 'Pontus' tectonic plate from 160 million years ago, which was discovered using tomography to be the missing chunk of the ancient Earth, is present-day Borneo.

Tomography in Research

Suzanna van de Lagemaat, a geologist, and her colleagues at Utrecht University in the Netherlands have found the Pontus tectonic plate, a sizable and hitherto unidentified tectonic plate.

Using tomography, the scientists discovered ancient tectonic plate fragments in the Earth's mantle 11 years ago.

Using seismic waves from naturally occurring earthquakes collected at sites at or close to the surface across the planet, tomography is a potent technique for creating three-dimensional images of the interior of the earth.

The scientists suspected there had once been a large tectonic plate that was roughly a quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean after discovering the shards.

Pontus Tectonic Plate and Modern-Day Borneo

The geologists then looked into the mountain ranges of Japan, Borneo, New Guinea, the Philippines, and New Zealand, according to the website of Utrecht University.

According to the university's website, van de Lagemaat was surprised to discover that oceanic fragments on northern Borneo likely belonged to the long-theorized plate known as Pontus.

The team's fieldwork in the Malaysian and Bruneian-controlled north of the island of Borneo served as the most crucial piece of the puzzle in the composition.

Van de Lagemaat claims that they believed they were working with remnants of a lost plate that was already known to them. However, their magnetic laboratory analysis of those rocks revealed that they had to be the remains of a distinct, previously undiscovered plate because their discoveries had to have originated from considerably farther north.

Reconstructing the Missing Chunk of Ancient Earth

The scientists started recreating the plate after finding its remains. The rocks the researchers researched on Borneo were included in van de Lagemaat's meticulous reconstruction of "half of the "Ring of Fire" mountainous regions from Japan, over New Guinea, to New Zealand where the projected Pontus plate was revealed.

According to the university, learning more about the movements of the tectonic plates that make up the earth's tough outer shell reveals more about the geological past of the globe.

It claims that these plate movements have had a significant impact on how the planet's temperature and paleogeography have altered over time, as well as where to discover rare metals.

The team's research also showed that a single cohesive plate tectonic system, which must have existed for at least 150 million years, spanned from southern Japan to New Zealand.

The team of scientists used computer models to research the geology of the area over the past 160 million years to solve the puzzle.

The reconstruction of the plate revealed a glitch between what is now South China and Borneo; an ocean that was assumed to be supported by the Izanagi plate, an older plate, wasn't actually on that plate.

The Borneo rocks, however, slipped into that enigmatic opening.

According to the reconstruction, the Pontus plate developed at least 160 million years ago, though it was likely much older.

The Borneo rock samples were taken there, and they are 135 million years old. It was initially very large, but it gradually decreased throughout the course of its existence until it was finally forced beneath the Australian plate to the south and the Chinese plate to the north, disappearing 20 million years ago.