It feels like lately there are amazing science stories coming out every day, all of which are surprising our youngsters.
First, there was the discovery of a monstrous black hole leading directly to us, then the discovery of a massive hole in the sun and the discovery of a lost continent after being missing for 375 years.
Now, people are just realizing that there is a vast ocean hidden under the earth’s crust.
It turns out that there is a huge reservoir of water 400 miles underground that is stored in a rock known as Ringwoodite.
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Scientists previously discovered that water is stored in mantle rock in a spongy state, which is neither liquid, solid, nor gas, but rather a fourth state.
Scientific paper Published in 2014, Drought Melts the Upper Mantle and Presents the Results.
There is three times more water below the surface than in the oceanStock
“Ringwoodite is like a sponge, absorbing water,” said geophysicist Steve Jacobsen at the time. “There is something very special about ringwoodite’s crystal structure that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water.”
“This mineral can hold a lot of water under deep mantle conditions,” added Jacobsen, who was part of the team behind the find.
He added, “I think we are finally seeing evidence of Earth’s entire water cycle, which may help explain the abundance of liquid water on the surface of our planet that is habitable. Scientists have been searching for this lost deep water for decades.”
Scientists came to the discovery at the time after studying earthquakes and finding that seismographs pick up shock waves beneath the Earth’s surface.
From that, they were able to determine that the water was trapped within the rock known as Ringwoodite.
If a rock contains only 1 percent water, it means that there is three times more water under the Earth’s surface than in the oceans at the surface.
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2023-07-03 15:52:46
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