Science & Technology

Unexplained radioactive anomaly detected at the bottom of the Pacific

By T.K. Randall
February 15, 2025 ·  10 comments

The cause of the anomaly remains something of a mystery. Image Credit: Pixabay / Schaferle No, it's not Godzilla - but an anomalous radioactive anomaly recently picked up somewhere at the bottom of the Pacific is very much a genuine unexplained mystery.

The 'blip' - which consists of a surge of the radioactive isotope Beryllium-10 - was first identified by researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf research institute in Germany.

Exactly what might be responsible for the anomaly is currently unclear, but what we do know is that it was likely generated by something that happened around 9 million years ago.

Beryllium-10 typically arrives on Earth from space, so perhaps at around that time there was a sudden surge in such deposits due to a nearby supernova explosion, for instance.

Another possibility is that there could have been a major shift in ocean currents at around that time."This could have caused beryllium-10 to be unevenly distributed across the Earth for a period of time," said study leader and physicist Dr Dominik Koll.

"As a result, beryllium-10 could have become particularly concentrated in the Pacific Ocean."

As things stand, however, the precise explanation for this perplexing anomaly remains elusive.

"Only new measurements can indicate whether the beryllium anomaly was caused by changes in ocean currents or has astrophysical reasons," Dr Koll wrote.

"That is why we plan to analyze more samples in the future and hope that other research groups will do the same."

Source: Science Alert | Comments (10)

Tags: Pacific