How we live now is defined by unprecedented forces. In this special issue, WIRED and Architectural Digest help you understand what home will look like tomorrow—and beyond.
Buying a first house used to mark entry into adulthood—and the beginning of wealth-building. But a shifting economic landscape is threatening to close the door on this American milestone.
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In a groundbreaking study poised to reshape our understanding of Earth’s deep interior dynamics, researchers have unveiled a comprehensive model elucidating the genesis of the extensive large igneous provinces (LIPs) in the Pacific Ocean during the Early Cretaceous period. These massive volcanic events, which left a profound imprint on the planet’s geological record, had long been attributed to various causes including isolated mantle plumes, tectonic slab return flows, or complex plume–ridge interactions. This latest research integrates geophysical modeling with paleogeographic data to reveal a multifaceted interplay between mantle convection processes, subducting tectonic plates, and migrating mid-ocean ridges that collectively controlled the timing, location, and intensity of LIP formation.
The Pacific Ocean’s Early Cretaceous LIPs, encompassing some of the largest volcanic eruptions in Earth’s recent history, had puzzled researchers due to their sporadic yet intense episodes of basaltic outpourings. Historically, hypotheses have swung between attributing these vast eruptions to the arrival of deep superplumes—a concept suggesting stable, buoyant columns of hot mantle material rising from the core-mantle boundary—to mechanisms involving return flows of cold slabs being subducted beneath the Pacific basin. Adding complexity, the interaction between these mantle upwellings with tectonic spreading ridges has also been proposed as a trigger for massive melt generation. Yet, until now, a unified mechanistic explanation that could integrate these disparate phenomena remained elusive.
The pivotal insight of the new study comes from advanced mantle flow simulations constrained by precise paleogeographic reconstructions of Early Cretaceous plate configurations. By projecting plate motions and subduction geometries back in time, the researchers were able to create dynamic models of mantle convection patterns beneath the Pacific basin. These simulations revealed a stable pattern of thermally buoyant mantle upwellings, or plumes, persisting between approximately 165 million and 80 million years ago. Intriguingly, these upwellings were not isolated features but were rooted above enduring lower mantle thermal anomalies, suggesting the importance of inherited mantle structure in shaping convective behavior.
A particularly striking finding emerged around 130 to 125 million years ago, when the intensity of mantle upwelling reached its zenith. This peak activity appears fundamentally linked to an increase in slab flux beneath the Pacific realm, where enhanced subduction rates delivered cold tectonic plates deeply into the mantle, inducing a return flow that effectively strengthened the buoyant upwellings. This coupling indicates that rather than being independent processes, subduction dynamics and preexisting mantle heterogeneities synergistically elevate mantle temperatures and buoyancy, fostering conditions ripe for extensive melting and volcanic activity.
The study highlights the critical role of mantle-ridge interaction in modulating LIP genesis. Around 145 to 120 million years ago, migrating spreading ridges—regions where tectonic plates diverge, allowing mantle material to rise and solidify as new crust—passed over these vigorous upwellings. The models suggest that when spreading ridges intersected with zones of intense heat advection from the underlying mantle plumes, the accompanying thermal anomaly slowed ridge propagation. This transient deceleration enhanced the efficiency of mantle melting, channeling voluminous magma to Earth’s surface and triggering the prolific LIP eruptions witnessed in the geological record.
However, subsequent to this period of intense volcanic activity, the simulations indicate a pronounced decline in LIP eruption frequency and magnitude. This downturn corresponds to a combination of factors: a weakening of mantle upwelling intensity as slab flux diminishes, and the accelerated migration of spreading ridges away from the central Pacific mantle plumes. Such dynamic decoupling reduces the capacity for significant mantle melting beneath the ridges, thereby suppressing the generation of large-scale igneous provinces.
The revelations of this study carry profound implications for our grasp of Earth’s mantle convection and its surface expressions. The joint control of radial heat advection by slab flux and inherited lower-mantle structures innovatively bridges the gap between mantle plume theory and plate tectonic processes. It underscores the necessity of considering the deep Earth’s thermal architecture not as static but as an evolving, inherited template that interacts intricately with episodic tectonic phenomena to produce massive surface volcanism.
Moreover, the research offers a nuanced perspective on the temporal and spatial variability of LIP occurrences. The inferred stability of the central Pacific mantle upwellings over tens of millions of years challenges the traditional view that mantle plumes are transient or short-lived. Instead, the presence of deep-rooted thermal anomalies suggests longevity that serves as a backdrop for dynamic tectonic events, providing fertile mantle heat reservoirs that can be tapped repeatedly under favorable conditions.
The evidence for spreading ridges acting as crucial melting amplifiers rather than mere passive features reshapes existing paradigms around mid-ocean ridge evolution. The transient slowing of ridge migration due to underlying thermal anomalies offers a novel mechanism explaining how mantle melting can be efficiently modulated over geological timescales. This insight emphasizes the interconnectedness of deep mantle processes and plate boundary dynamics, illuminating a feedback system where surface plate motions influence, and are influenced by, mantle convection.
Such a feedback mechanism further accounts for the spatial clustering and episodic nature of LIP eruptions in the Pacific basin. As spreading ridges move relative to mantle plumes, the precise location and intensity of melting episodes shift, giving rise to spatially focused volcanic provinces at certain intervals. This dynamic explains observed geological distributions that earlier models struggled to fully capture, providing a cohesive narrative linking mantle physics, tectonic processes, and surface volcanism.
In addition to unraveling long-standing geological puzzles, this study also enhances predictive frameworks that may be vital for understanding the Earth’s future geodynamic behavior. The coupling between slab dynamics, mantle structure, and ridge migration suggests that monitoring contemporary subduction zones and spreading ridges could illuminate potential sites of enhanced mantle melting, which could, in extreme cases, relate to future volcanic hazards or crustal growth episodes.
The sophisticated modeling approaches employed further demonstrate the power of integrating multi-disciplinary datasets in geosciences. The confluence of plate reconstructions, mantle convection simulations, and thermal structure analyses exemplifies a holistic methodology transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries. This approach not only advances fundamental scientific knowledge but also opens avenues for exploration into Earth’s deep processes that underpin surface phenomena critical to the planet’s evolution.
While the findings present a compelling mechanism for Early Cretaceous LIP activity in the Pacific, the study also raises exciting questions about the potential for analogous mantle-plume and ridge interactions in other oceanic basins and geological epochs. Could similar dynamics explain volcanic provinces elsewhere, or are these processes unique to the Pacific’s mantle and tectonic configuration during that period? Future research targeted at extending these models globally and temporally promises to deepen our understanding of Earth’s geodynamic engine.
In conclusion, the fusion of mantle convection modeling with tectonic and paleogeographic data in this research provides a transformative lens on one of Earth’s most dramatic volcanic phenomena. The identification of vigorous mantle convection driven by tiered slab flux and legacy mantle structures, alongside nuanced ridge-upwelling interactions, charts a paradigm shift in interpreting large igneous province formation. These revelations not only solve longstanding enigmas of the Cretaceous Pacific LIPs but also refine the broader framework within which mantle dynamics and surface tectonics coalesce to sculpt our planet’s geological evolution.
As our planet continues to evolve, studies like this reaffirm the deep interconnectivity of processes spanning from Earth’s core to its crust, reminding us of the subtly intertwined forces shaping the planet on scales across both space and time. Through sophisticated simulations and integrative science, the tantalizing mysteries of Earth’s volcanic past inch closer to clarity, offering unprecedented glimpses into the fiery heart of our dynamic planet.
Subject of Research: Mantle convection dynamics and formation of large igneous provinces during the Early Cretaceous period in the Pacific Ocean.
Article Title: Vigorous mantle convection triggered the Cretaceous Pacific large igneous provinces.
Article References:
Deng, D., Li, S., Cao, X. et al. Vigorous mantle convection triggered the Cretaceous Pacific large igneous provinces. Nat. Geosci. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-026-02016-y
Heaven is at war and Satan is trying to destroy the true followers of Jesus Christ. Here I explore the idea that UFOs are real manifestations of angelic forces, both malevolent and benevolent, as seen in visions in the Bible. They are the ones currently engaged in battle.
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Early in the 11th century, a young Benedictine monk named Eilmer jumped from the 150-foot tower of his abbey in the small English town of Malmesbury, wearing a pair of crude wings he’d fashioned from willow wood and cloth. Eilmer managed to glide a good 600 feet, passing over the city wall before crash-landing in a small valley near the river Avon. The fall broke both his legs, crippling him. Malmesbury Abbey still boasts a stained-glass window in honor of Brother Eilmer.
This legendary experiment in medieval aviation comes to us via 12th-century historian William of Malmesbury in an account written circa 1125, although William neglected to provide future historians with an exact date for the feat. But William does mention another key episode in Eilmer's life when the monk was "advanced in years": Eilmer witnessed Halley's comet in 1066, commenting, "It is long since I saw you." Some historians have interpreted this to mean that Eilmer saw Halley's comet on an earlier fly-by in 989, when he would have been a young boy.
Assuming Eilmer was at least 5 years old in 989, he would have been born no later than 984. This would make Eilmer in his 80s in 1066, with his attempt at flight—which occurred when he was "in his first youth"—likely falling between 1000 and 1010. However, it's an estimate that is based on a lot of assumptions, according to James Aitcheson of the University of Leicester, who argues in a paper published in the journal Notes and Queries that Eilmer may have seen a different comet altogether in his youth—the comet of 1018. If so, he would have been born much later, and the date of his flight would have occurred between the 1020s and 1040s.
You don't really ever have to explain why a universal remote is a good idea. You have a bunch of stuff that needs controlling; this thing controls them all. Many companies have set out to build a product worthy of this idea, and one product came much closer than most. It was called the Harmony, and for many years it was the best universal remote on the market. Maybe the only one that mattered. And still, even the Harmony couldn't make it work.
On this episode of Version History, we tell the story of the Harmony. The Verge's David Pierce, Nilay Patel, and John Higgins are joined by Matt Rogers, the CEO of Mill and former cofounder of Nest, t …
Rare charcoal fragments from an ancient lakeshore campsite are offering new clues about fire use, resource management, and the environmental knowledge of some of humanity’s earliest fire users. Long before cities, farms, or written language existed, some of humanity’s ancestors had already discovered a resource that would transform the course of human evolution: fire. But [...]
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