03:08 PM
Thursday 06 April 2023
Deutsche Welle:
Geological researchers have found evidence that the Earth’s crust hides a huge ocean of fresh water, 640 km from the Earth’s surface.
This water is stored in a rock known as Ringwoodite. Scientists from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said a reservoir of water three times the size of all Earth’s oceans has been discovered deep within the planet’s surface.
This discovery could help explain the origin of water on Earth, and perhaps help us better understand life on our planet.
Scientists had previously discovered that water is stored within the “mantle rock” region – which is one of the layers of the globe – in a sponge-like state, which is not liquid, solid or gaseous, but a fourth state instead, and a study was published in 2014 on that. The strange physical state of water.
Scientists came to these conclusions at the time after discovering that seismographs were picking up shock waves below the Earth’s surface. They were then able to establish that water was trapped in the rock known as Ringwoodite.
The study indicated that the high water storage capacity in the Earth’s mantle (which has a thickness of 410 to 660 km) indicates the possibility of a huge reservoir of water, according to the “Futuresm” website.
Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, one of the participants in the study, said: “Ringwoodite rocks are like sponges, as they absorb water greatly due to the crystal structure of ringwoodite, which allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water inside it.”
Jacobsen, who was part of the team behind the discovery, added: “I think we are finally seeing evidence of the entire Earth’s water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on our planet’s surface. Scientists have been searching for these deep waters.” lost for decades.
Water covers about 71% of the surface of the planet, and according to the recent study, if the rock contains only 1% of the water on the surface of the earth, this means that the volume of water held in these rocks within the mantle layer is 3 times the volume of water in the oceans due to the size These rocks are massive in the heart of the Earth.