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Scientists scour 'Mexico's Galapagos' for quake, volcano clues

Could a volcanic eruption off Mexico's coast unleash a tsunami like the one that devastated Tonga? What really causes tectonic plates to shift and trigger earthquakes? Scientists visited a remote archipelago in search of answers.

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"Plates move over mantle. Is the mantle pushing the plates? Is the mantle doing nothing?" van Hinsbergen said. According to conventional theory, convection -- the mantle's motion caused by the transfer of heat from the Earth's core to the outer layer -- causes tectonic plates to move and grind against each other. Van Hinsbergen's hypothesis is that the mantle is in fact "a big lake of rock that is essentially not convecting," which he said would require a complete rethink.