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Biggest Fault on Earth Found Inside the Deadly 'Ring of Fire'

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Scientists have found the largest exposed fault on Earth

For the first time, researchers have confirmed the existence of the largest exposed fault on Earth, and it could explain how a 7.2-km-deep (4.5-mile) abyss formed in the Pacific Ocean.

Discovered beneath the Banda Sea in eastern Indonesia, the massive fault plane runs right through the notorious Ring of Fire - an explosive region where roughly 90 percent of the world's earthquakes and 75 percent of all active volcanoes occur.

For almost a century, scientists have known about the Weber Deep - a massive chasm lurking near the Maluku Islands of Indonesia that forms the deepest point of Earth’s oceans not within a trench.

But until now, no one could figure out how it formed.

To investigate, geologists from the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra and Royal Holloway University of London analysed maps of the sea floor taken from the Banda Sea region in the Pacific Ocean.

They discovered that rocks sitting the bottom of the sea were cut by hundreds of straight parallel scars.

Simulations of the sea floor suggested that a massive piece of crust bigger than Belgium was at some point ripped apart by a massive crack - or fault - in the oceanic plates to form a deep depression in the ocean floor.

The activity appeared to have left behind the biggest exposed fault plane ever detected on Earth, which the researchers have tentatively called the Banda Detachment.

[link to www.sciencealert.com]

Egypt quake an hour late posting !

Simple and CS - I hope your doctors appointments went well!

Mine went exactly as I expected. Went over test results and need to schedule an MIBG scan.

Totally could've been handled by phone. Annoyed the hell out of me because this doctor isn't local.

Okay, I'm done bitching lol.

Thanks Kickin

That sucks. You probably had to pay a copay for that too, I assume. I hope you get the scan and it finds nothing!!