Shocking discovery reveals that California is ‘peeling apart’ below Earth's surface

Researchers have found that California’s under-Earth landscape could be changing and have helped confirm years of speculation.

California is no stranger to significant natural events, with the US state having seen its fair share of earthquakes and wildfires over the years.

The wildfires that befell the state this month alone proved to be particularly concerning as thousands of homes and properties were destroyed and many lives were lost.

Los Angeles was devastated by wildfires earlier this month (ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

But underneath the surface, geologists would argue there is just as much going on.

Scientists have discovered evidence that California is actually peeling apart below the surface, as dense rocks under the Sierra Nevada mountain is detaching and sinking deeper into the mantle.

This process is known as foundering and researchers at the University of Boulder have said this discovery helps create a clearer picture of how continental crust is formed all over the world.

The researchers published their findings in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Geologists have long had theories about the tectonic activity underneath Sierra Nevada mountains (Emil Muench/Archive Photos/Getty Images)

The team behind the new study used imagery techniques to map the lower crust and uppermost mantle of the Sierra Nevada. By doing this it allowed them to see any changes in how seismic waves moved beneath the surface.

The study has ultimately concluded that not only are areas of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range separating, but also that it occurred several million years ago - an idea that had long been speculated about regarding geological changes billions of years ago.

Writing in the study, the researchers said: "The removal happened several million years ago in the southern part of the mountains and is still in progress under the central part, causing very deep small earthquakes, while the northern part still retains its dense layer.

"We have therefore captured snapshots of a fundamental continent-building process."

Researchers believe the foundering process began millions of years ago (David McNew/Getty Images)

Geologists Vera Schulte-Pelkum and Debora Klib, also looked at earthquake data from the Advanced National Seismic System Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog as part of their study.

Looking at all of the data, the pair concluded that the foundering process has been taking place beneath the mountain range for at least three million years.

These conclusions for the region provide evidence of a process of differentiation, or the separation of different materials within the Earth's lithosphere based on their density.

This in turn helps confirm geologists' long-held suspicions that foundering allows the planet to generate its lighter continental crust from the denser mix of minerals beneath.