The idea of an underwater world has driven a lot of science fiction, but a group of researchers say it’s not that far from the truth. They discovered an area within the Earth’s surface that is believed to contain many times more water than all of Earth’s oceans combined. The discovery was made with the discovery of diamonds and could support a theory that has shaken conventional wisdom about how water appeared on the planet. Read on to find out what scientists have discovered and what impact it has.
from Goethe University In Frankfurt, Germany, geologists are investigating a diamond found more than 2,100 feet underground in Botswana, Africa. Analyzing the contents of the rock, they found that it contained a lot of water. The enormous volume of water in diamonds is evidence to support the theory – previously only a theory – that the great oceans are suspended between the upper and lower layers of the Earth, deep within the planet’s crust.
The depth at which the diamonds were found – 660 meters, or about 2,100 feet – lies in the deepest part of the “transition zone”, the boundary layer that separates the Earth’s upper mantle from the lower mantle. Minerals in the lower regions of the transition zone – closer to the Earth’s core – are denser and less likely to move as tectonic plates closer to the Earth’s surface. ‘These mineral shifts severely hamper the movement of rocks in the mantle,’ said Professor Frank Brinker of the Goethe University Institute of Earth Sciences in Frankfurt. For example, mantle plumes – lumps of hot rock rising from the deep mantle – sometimes stop just below the transition zone. The movement of the masses in the opposite direction also stopped ». Due to the density and stationary nature of this area, scientists aren’t sure how much water there is.
They also analyze diamonds. Using advanced spectroscopy, the researchers found that diamonds contain ringwoodite, a mineral with a high water content. “We have shown in this study that the transition zone is not a dry sponge, but rather contains a large amount of water,” said Brinker. “It also brings us a step closer to Jules Verne’s idea of an ocean inside the Earth.”
Scientists have previously speculated that because minerals deep in the earth’s crust – wadsleyite and ringwoodite – can store large amounts of water, the transition zone probably contains six times more water than all of the planet’s oceans. “We know that the boundary layer has an enormous capacity to store water,” said Brinker. “However, we don’t know if he really did it.” Until now. This could be evidence that deep waters within the Earth are part of the planet’s general water system.
This discovery could join others in revising ideas for Earth’s water sources. The prevailing theory is that the young planet was too hot to naturally develop water. Water is believed to have formed in the solar system and then reached the planet from comets or asteroids that hit the surface. But if water is deep in the transition zone of the planet, this theory will not hold up.
