Superplumes Inside Earth
Image unavailable
May 4, 2026
The universe is brighter with you in it. Happy birthday.
Birthday · May 4, 2026
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.
This archive entry has no available still image to save. Choose a still from another year below, or open the original APOD.
Use a still image from another year
Your celebration date stays the same. Each image keeps its actual publication date.
Date & occasion, no name
Change the year
Selected image source ↗ APOD published May 4, 2026. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Read the original APOD for the astronomer’s explanation and full image credits. Its text is preserved in the archive as published.
Read the archived explanation
Why are there huge, unusual masses inside the Earth? No one is sure. By noting how earthquakes rumble through our planet's interior, humanity has discovered two deep structures that appear to have unusual temperatures and/or chemical compositions. One hypothesis holds that the superplumes are sunken debris left over from the Earth-shattering collision that created Earth's Moon about 4.5 billion years ago. A competing hypothesis is that they are graveyards for old tectonic plates that slowly slid under each other over the past few billion years. No matter their origin, the superplumes are thought to affect Earth’s surface volcanism, possibly creating, for example, island chains such as Hawaii. Also known as large low-shear-velocity provinces (LLSVPs), Earth's superplumes are visualized in the featured animation.
Watch the original video
Explore May 4 in other years · 31 APOD entries, 1996–2026
Updated · APOD entries through