A team of scientists has detected a colossal geological anomaly, a massive and mysterious change that took place nearly 2,900 kilometers deep, right at the boundary between the Earth’s mantle and the core, an event that measurably altered the planet’s gravitational field and that has been captured, indirectly but unequivocally, by instruments in orbit.

The finding, published last month in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggests that the structure of rocks in the depths of the lower mantle can transform dynamically, a process that could have fundamental implications for our understanding of planetary dynamics, from the origin of major earthquakes to the generation of the magnetic field that protects life on the surface.

The research, led by Charlotte Gaugne Gouranton of the City University of Paris and with the notable participation of geophysicist Isabelle Panet of Gustave Eiffel University, focused on the meticulous analysis of data collected by the GRACE (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment) satellite mission, a joint project between the United States and Germany that operated between 2002 and 2017.