'400-mile funnel found': A hidden force is dragging Earth’s crust into the mantle
Produced by: Manoj Kumar
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Crust collapses
Deep under the Midwest, chunks of Earth’s crust are slowly sinking into the mantle like molasses.
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Plate ghost
A long-lost tectonic plate—the Farallon slab—is still reshaping North America millions of years later.
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Drip zone
Seismic scans reveal massive rock “drips” pulling the crust down in a slow, geological free-fall.
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Midwest melt
From Michigan to Alabama, Earth’s crust is thinning—dragged into the deep by ancient forces.
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Mantle funnel
A 400-mile funnel beneath the surface channels crust inward like a drainpipe to the mantle.
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Wave reveal
Using advanced full-waveform inversion, scientists caught the crust in the act of collapsing.
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Geologic ghost
Though submerged long ago, the Farallon plate still exerts invisible force from deep within Earth.
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Craton crumbles
Even the sturdy North American craton isn’t safe—its edges are being peeled and pulled from below.
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Time machine
This discovery gives us a live look at continental recycling—a process millions of years in the making.
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