Jakarta –
Far below the earth’s surface, apparently there is a huge mass of water. It is estimated that its volume is three times the amount of water in all the oceans on the earth’s surface.
In 2014, a team in the United States used 2,000 seismometers to study the seismic waves from around 500 earthquakes. By examining the speed of the waves at different depths, the team was also able to find out what rock the waves traveled through before reaching the sensors.
The team then found a rock called ringwoodite. The rock is found about 700 kilometers beneath our feet, in the transition zone between the lower and upper mantle.
Ringwoodite only forms under intense pressure towards the center of planet Earth. These rocks do not contain water and are not liquid, but are trapped in the molecular structure of minerals.
So far there has only been one sample from within the Earth, namely a meteorite trapped in a small diamond.
Ringwoodite Like a Sponge
Quoted from IFL Science, geophysicist Steve Jacobsen said ringwoodite is like a sponge that absorbs water. In its crystal structure, there is something very special, namely the ability to attract hydrogen to trap water. In addition, these minerals contain a lot of water under lower mantle conditions.
An experiment showed ringwoodite has a water content of up to 1.5 percent. The seismic waves detected are also consistent with the rocks beneath our feet containing water.
Scientists estimate that only 1 percent of the rock in the transition zone is water. Thus, ringwoodite can contain three times as much water as all the oceans on Earth’s surface.
Seismologist Brandon Schmandt said if there is a large amount of H2O in the transition zone, that means some melting must be occurring in areas where there is flow into the mantle below. This is in line with what they found.
Jacobsen told New Scientist that he believed that this could be proof that water on Earth also came from within.
“I think we are finally seeing evidence of a water cycle throughout planet Earth, which may help explain the abundance of liquid water on the surface of our planet that is habitable,” he said in a statement.
“Scientists have been searching for this lost depth of water for decades,” he said.
Watch Video “When the TNI Turns Sea Water into Drinking Water and Ice Cubes“
(nah/gas)
