Over 400 million years ago, an upwelling of hot rock from Earth's mantle wrenched apart the crust in Mongolia, creating an ocean that survived for 115 million years.
The geological history of this ocean could help researchers understand Wilson cycles, or the process by which supercontinents break apart and come together. These are slow, broad-scale processes that progress by less than an inch per year, said study co-author Daniel Pastor-Galán, a geoscientist at the National Spanish Research Council in Madrid.
