A ‘gravity anomaly’ from 2007 may have impacted Earth in one unusual way

A ‘gravity anomaly’ may sound dramatic, but as defined by EBSCO, they pertain to “deviations in the expected measurements of gravity at specific locations on Earth, primarily influenced by variations in subsurface rock density” – and French academics have identified an “unusual gravity signal” which took place over the Atlantic Ocean in early 2007.

Using data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites (referred to as GRACE for short), the study team write in their conclusion: “We have identified an anomalous large-scale gravity gradient signal in the eastern Atlantic ocean, maximum at the beginning of 2007, which cannot be fully explained by surface water sources nor core fluid flows.”

The academics say the signal occurred between 2006 and 2008 and spanned an area of 7,000 kilometres. They also note that at around the same time as the anomaly, a “distinct” jerk was “observed in the same region using satellite magnetic data”.

No, this particular space jerk isn’t Elon Musk, but rather a geomagnetic jerk, where the Earth’s magnetic field “suddenly and unexpectedly accelerates”.

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The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters in August, suggests part of the aforementioned “unusual gravity signal” is reflective of “rapid mass redistributions” deep in the Earth’s mantle – that’s the middle layer between our planet’s crust/outer layer, and core.

And the researchers write that such ‘distributions’ may come from “temporal changes in the depth” of a transition which occurs in the main mineral found in the lower mantle, bridgmanite.

In summary, unusual gravity signals may be caused by “rapid mass distributions” within the Earth’s mantle, which may be causing the geomagnetic jerks, which may be caused by changes concerning the lower mantle mineral known as bridgmanite.

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