Mystery surrounding Earth's 'heartbeat' that shakes every 26 seconds has scientists baffled

Scientists have multiple theories and can’t seem to agree on what causes the earth to have small seismic activity every 26 seconds.

There are a lot of curious things about this big blue ball we call Earth and some of the most fascinating things often leaves us, and scientists alike, puzzled.

Or if not puzzled at least has them debating and questioning each other.

That is what good science is all about, right?

Well, one mystery about the Earth has had scientists at each other's throats for years (thankfully not literally).

Every 26 seconds, their is an essential pulse that can be measured.

A type of 'heartbeat' from the planet that seismologists have known about for decades.

The pulse, or ‘microseism’ - if you want to get geological about it - was first documented in the early 1960s by researcher, Jack Oliver.

Some scientists believe waves are the reason for the small seismic activity. (Getty Stock Image)

Oliver figured out that the pulse was coming from somewhere ‘in the southern or equatorial Atlantic Ocean’ and that it was stronger in the Northern Hemisphere's summer months.

However, it seems Oliver was limited by the technology of his time, as future generations of scientists were able to find out more about this pulse.

Speaking at the Seismological Society of America conference in 2013, Garrett Euler explained his findings and narrowed down the source of the pulse even more to a part of the Gulf of Guinea called the Bight of Bonny.

He also claimed that waves were the culprit.

Damn those pesky waves.

He said when waves travel across the ocean, the pressure difference in the water might not have much effect on the ocean floor but when it hits the continental shelf — where the solid ground is much closer to the surface — the pressure deforms the ocean floor.

Other scientists have argued volcanoes are the cause. (Getty Stock Image)

This, in turn, causes seismic pulses that reflect the wave action.

However, in a paper later that year, Yingjie Xia from the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics in Wuhan, suggested the cause was actually volcanoes, not waves. Those pesky volcanoes?

He said the reasoning was because the pulse’s origin was suspiciously close to a volcano on the island of São Tomé in the Bight of Bonny.

He also said that there was another place where a volcano causes a microseism similar to this one, the Aso Volcano in Japan.

Personally, I’m not too sure either way.... seeing as I’m not a geologist and I get my earthquake knowledge from Roland Emmerich films.

But it’s an interesting thought to know there are still wonders of the world we can’t fully explain yet.

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