Geologists have long been intrigued by a puzzling phenomenon known as the "gravity hole" in the Indian Ocean, where the Earth's gravitational pull is weaker, its mass is lower than normal, and the sea level dips by over 328 feet (100 meters). However, researchers from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, India, have recently made a significant breakthrough in explaining its formation.
The team believes that plumes of magma originating from deep inside the planet, much like those that lead to the creation of volcanoes, are responsible for the formation of the "gravity hole." To arrive at this hypothesis, the researchers used supercomputers to simulate how the area could have formed, going as far back as 140 million years. The findings center around an ancient ocean that no longer exists.
The team ran 19 simulations up to the present day, meticulously recreating the shifting of tectonic plates and the behavior of magma inside the mantle. In six of the scenarios, a geoid low similar to the one in the Indian Ocean formed. The distinguishing factor in all six of these models was the presence of plumes of magma around the geoid low, which, along with the mantle structure in the vicinity, are believed to be responsible for the formation of the "gravity hole."
The plumes themselves are thought to have originated from the disappearance of an ancient ocean as India's landmass drifted and eventually collided with Asia tens of millions of years ago. As the oceanic plate went down inside the mantle, it could have spurred the formation of the plumes, bringing low-density material closer to Earth's surface.
The "gravity hole" in the Indian Ocean is officially called the Indian Ocean geoid low, and it forms a circular depression that starts just off India’s southern tip and covers about 1.2 million square miles (3 million square kilometers). The anomaly was discovered by Dutch geophysicist Felix Andries Vening Meinesz in 1948, during a gravity survey from a ship, and has remained a mystery since then.
The geoid low formed around 20 million years ago, according to the team's calculation. However, it's uncertain whether it will ever disappear or shift away. The future of the geoid low depends on how these mass anomalies in the Earth move around. The study provides an interesting hypothesis that should encourage further work on this topic. However, some experts have pointed out flaws in the study's execution, indicating that there may be some deficiencies in the computer simulation.
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