He discovered that water seeped from the Earth’s crust to the planet’s core

There’s still a lot we don’t know about our planet’s interior, but scientists have recently discovered that water is slowly seeping from our planet’s surface.

This is not a simple journey. The fluid falls beneath the descending tectonic plates, before finally reaching the core after traveling 2,900 km.

Although the process is slow, over billions of years a new surface has formed between the liquid metal in the outer core and outer mantle of the Earth.

In a new study, scientists at Arizona State University say that water triggers a chemical reaction, leading to the formation of a new layer “several hundred kilometers” thick. (This is “thin” when it comes to the deep layers of the earth.)

“For many years, physical exchange between the Earth’s core and the mantle was thought to be small. However, our recent high-pressure experiments reveal a different story.

“We found that when water reaches the core-mantle boundary, it reacts with silicon in the core, forming silica,” wrote co-author Dr. Dan Shim.

“This discovery, combined with our previous observations of diamonds forming from the reaction of water with carbon in molten iron under extreme pressure, suggests a much more dynamic interaction between core and mantle, suggesting significant physical exchange.”

So what does this mean for the rest of us on the surface?

“This discovery advances our understanding of Earth’s internal processes, demonstrating a broader global water cycle than previously known,” the ASU statement said.

“Changes in the core ‘layer’ have major implications for the geochemical cycles that link the surface water cycle to the deep mineral core.”

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