Indian Ocean hides a giant 'gravity hole': Here's how it formed

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Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science have revealed the secrets of the giant gravity hole that rests in the Indian Ocean...

Known as the Indian Ocean Geoid Low (IOGL), in scientific terms, its origin remains mysterious and satellite-based surveys have revealed that the sea level just dips on account of the gravitational tug-of-war just off the tip of the Indian subcontinent...

Two researchers from the Centre for Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore have now come up with an explanation of these humongous structures formed in the ocean that cover an area of roughly three million square kilometers...

Debanjan Pal, and Attreyee Ghosh, who led the research, looked inside Earth's surface, nearly 1,000 kilometers beneath the crust where once an ancient ocean plunged nearly and stirred up hot molten rock, nearly 30 million years ago...

Simulations ran on several computer models revealed that every time for the gravity hole anomaly to form plumes of hot, low-density magma was required, and the first such plume appeared nearly 20 million years ago, and as the plumes intensified so did the gravity hole...

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