Scientists have found an explanation for a 'gravity hole' in the Indian Ocean. A gravity hole is an area where gravitational pull is low, causing the seafloor to sink. Deep beneath the ocean, there is one that is three million square kilometers in size and previously it has confused scientists. Now two researchers from the Indian Institute of Science, Debanjan Pal and Attreyee Ghosh, think they have solved the mystery. More than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) beneath Earth's crust, they found cold, dense remnants of an ancient ocean plunged into a 'slab graveyard' beneath Africa some 30 million years ago, stirring up hot molten rock. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Pal and Ghosh retraced the formation of the massive geoid by modeling how tectonic plates skimmed over Earth's mantle for the past 140 million years. They ran simulations and compared the shape of the oceanic low those models predicted with observations of the dent itself. The models that reproduced the Indian Ocean geoid low in its current form all had one thing in common: plumes of hot, low-density magma wafting up beneath the low. These plumes, as well as a distinctive mantle structure, are what created the geoid low; if they rise high enough, Pal and Ghosh reckon. "In short, our results suggest that to match the [shape and amplitude of the] observed geoid low, plumes need to be buoyant enough to come up to mid-mantle depths," the pair wrote. The first of these plumes appeared about 20 million years ago, to the south of the Indian Ocean geoid low, and around 10 million years after the old Tethys Sea sank into the lower mantle. As the plumes spread beneath the lithosphere and inched towards the Indian peninsula, the low intensified. But more research needs to be done to work out what is really going on as not all scientists are convinced. Science is crazy. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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The crash sites of unidentified flying objects (or UFOs) are often mysterious in themselves, but even more so when you reportedly find what is simply described as “tiny spheres” akin to “cosmic sperm” in the area in question. Well, that’s what journalist George Knapp found when he obtained documents – some classified – from the Russian military into UFOs, something the Soviet government at the time had batted aside based on the view it was nothing but “Western propaganda”. Referring to a discovery from biologist Yuri Simakov of small balls discovered from the soil of landing sites, Knapp told the Weaponised podcast: “The impressions they made of the soil were pretty dramatic and it doesn’t look like anything that we fly, and he shared that with us. “He gave us all that information and then he found these little orbs. These tiny little perfect spheres … they were opaque. “They were sort of reddish orangish colour and he called them ‘cosmic sperm’. He thought they were some kind of a biological mechanism – some kind of seeds – and he gave me half of the world’s known supply of cosmic sperm and I brought them back.” We can’t believe we had to write that, and you probably can’t believe you just read that, but here we are. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Though if you’re wondering where the not-safe-for-work (NSFW) spheres are now, it turns out he sent them to Dr Thomas Hartmann at the University of Nevada, who confirmed there was nothing biological about the ‘spheres’. Knapp never got the spheres back though, so they’re likely still over there somewhere, yet to be retrieved. We think that’s probably for the best though, George, if we’re being perfectly honest. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario, will no longer be voicing the iconic role of Mario for Nintendo.