Hot blob beneath Appalachians formed when Greenland split from North America — and it's heading to New York

Beautiful sunset in the Appalachian mountains of Shenandoah National Park, Virginia, in Autumn.

A giant blob of abnormally hot rock beneath the Appalachian Mountains formed when Greenland separated from North America around 80 million years ago, new research suggests.

Scientists previously thought that this hot zone, known as the Northern Appalachian Anomaly, was left over after North America broke away from Africa 180 million years ago, but this theory does not stand up to new scrutiny, according to the study, published Wednesday (July 30) in the journal Geology.