Fragments of the protoplanet that gave birth to the Moon may lie in the Earth’s interior

Heterogeneities in the depths of Earth’s mantle suggest that our planet’s interior is far from a uniform “boring” system. In fact, small amounts of deeply buried Teia fragments may have been brought to the surface by mantle plumes, such as those that probably formed Hawaii and Iceland.

For example, geochemists studying the isotopic ratios of rare gases in samples of Icelandic basalt have found that they contain components different from typical surface materials.