‘Mass Of Warm Rock’ Bubbling Under NH, VT: Report

Researchers in New Jersey believe that they have located a “mass of warm rock” that is rising beneath northern New England, including New Hampshire and Vermont, and may lead to a major volcanic eruption … millions of years from now, according to a new information released by Rutgers Today. A study was published online this week by Geology as part of a seismic data gathered through the National Science Foundation’s EarthScope program. During the last two years, Earthscope placed thousands of seismic measurement devices around the United States in an effort to “reveal the structure and evolution of the North American continent” and to track “processes that cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.”

Vadim Levin, a geophysicist and professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University–New Brunswick, studied the seismic waves and vibrations focusing on New England after they previously found “an area of great warmth” – hundreds of degrees Celsius warmer than neighboring areas – and decided to take a deeper look.

Levin believes that this “upwelling pattern” of warm rock is beneath western New Hampshire, central Vermont and possibly western Massachusetts. It will take millions of years, he noted, for the upwelling to “get where it’s going.”

Read the full report on Rutgers Today.

Image via Vadim Levin/Rutgers University-New Brunswick, used with permission.