lithosphere research

At https://phys.org/print421653227.html … researchers at the University of Southampton have been looking at the thickness of Earth's continents (results published in the journal Science) by using seismic reflections to gain a better understanding of craton boundaries. The Earth's lithosphere includes the oceans, crust, and portions below this, which sit upon the Mantle. The lithosphere includes the continents – but how thick are they? They mkae use of seismic waves generated naturaly by hundreds of earthquakes. Thick rigid continents rest on a less solid underlying Mantle. It is necessary the continents do not have long roots as this would throw into question Plate Tectonics theory. Seismic tomography supports a deeper and thicker crust than assumed till now. What the implications of this research is will remain to be seen.