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Earth

There's a gravity 'hole' in the Indian Ocean and now we may know why

Earth appears to have less mass beneath a certain part of the Indian Ocean compared with the rest of the planet. Plumes of magma at the location could explain why

By James Dinneen

24 June 2023

A map of Earth's gravity

A map of Earth’s gravity. Blue shows lower regions and red higher.

ESA/HPF/DLR

The area of Earth with the lowest relative gravity is located just south of India in the Indian Ocean. This gravity “hole” may be due to low-density plumes of magma disturbed by the sinking slabs of a former tectonic plate.

Neither Earth nor its gravitational field are a perfect sphere. Because gravity is proportional to mass, the shape of the planet’s gravitational field depends on the distribution of mass within it. One way of representing this field is …

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