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God did it. Praise the lawd
http://www.iflscience.com/environmen...ds-earths-core
Water is what gives our planet its beautiful blue color and is critical for the existence of life as we know it. Our entire planet is nicknamed after it - the "blue planet", or "pale blue dot". A new study led by geophysicist Steve Jacobsen of Northwestern University and seismologist Brandon Schmandt from the University of New Mexico has yielded evidence that vast oceans worth of water are tied up within Earth’s mantle. The results are published in Science.
Four hundred miles beneath North America, Schmandt and Jacobsen found deep pockets of magma, which indicates the presence of water. However, this isn’t water in any of the three forms we are familiar with. The pressure coupled with the high temperatures forces the water to split into a hydroxyl radical (OH) which is then able to combine with the minerals on a molecular level.
This water, which is bound up in rock, could indicate the largest water reservoir on the planet. It is believed that plate tectonics cycle the water in and out, and the water affects the partial melting of rock in the mantle.
"Geological processes on the Earth's surface, such as earthquakes or erupting volcanoes, are an expression of what is going on inside the Earth, out of our sight," said Jacobsen in a press release. "I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.”
To laymen, the Earth has three layers: crust, mantle, and core. It is a bit more complex than that, as the mantle itself has four distinct layers: lithosphere, athenosphere, upper mantle, and lower mantle. Even among those layers, different areas have different features. Many scientists have assumed that the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle (250-410 miles beneath the surface) contained water, though this experiment is the first to provide the necessary direct evidence to support that theory.
”Melting of rock at this depth is remarkable because most melting in the mantle occurs much shallower, in the upper 50 miles," said Schmandt, the paper’s lead author. "If there is a substantial amount of H2O in the transition zone, then some melting should take place in areas where there is flow into the lower mantle, and that is consistent with what we found.”
For this study, the researchers utilized the USArray, which collects information from over 2,000 seismometers in the United States. The observations were supported by computer models that replicated conditions from the transition zone. The key to storing the water, they found, is a mineral called ringwoodite, which is a form of olivine that exists under high pressure and temperature.
"The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water," Jacobsen said. "There is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water. This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle.”
According to experiments, at depths around 400 miles, the ringwoodite should melt partially. This was done by using diamonds to exert tremendous pressure on the synthesized ringwoodite while subjecting it to high temperatures. The effects were studied with a combination of x-rays, electrons, and light. The researchers found that these experimental conditions supported observations from USArray.
"When a rock with a lot of H2O moves from the transition zone to the lower mantle it needs to get rid of the H2O somehow, so it melts a little bit," Schmandt said. "This is called dehydration melting.” After the rock melts, the researchers say, the water becomes trapped in the transition zone, creating a reservoir.
In March, a paper published in Nature from a different research group used a series of techniques including x-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy to confirm that a ringwoodite sample (the first to ever come from within the Earth and not just created in a lab) had a had a water content above one percent. This quan y matches what has been predicted by Schmandt’s experiments. Earth’s mantle is so vast, that if 1% of the material in the transition zone is actually water, it would represent a reservoir three times larger than all of Earth’s oceans combined.
"Whether or not this unique sample is representative of the Earth's interior composition is not known, however," Jacobsen said. "Now we have found evidence for extensive melting beneath North America at the same depths corresponding to the dehydration of ringwoodite, which is exactly what has been happening in my experiments.”
God did it. Praise the lawd
good job suckering me in tbh. This isn't the slightest bit interesting to anyone that isn't a geologist. If all that info was put into a true/false question I would've already guessed true. That's how unremarkable it is to the non expert
Pacific Rim?
It's interesting considering that the size of this ocean is bigger than all our oceans combined and is also the source for our water in its entirety on this planet. A lot of scientists believed that water actually crashed here from comets which has now been proven false.
yeah ok
Cool we found it. Now lets it up.
Finally, a competent theory.
Extremely interesting when you think about it, the key word here being "think".
Small thinkers won't appreciate this, undoubtedly.
Last edited by xmas1997; 06-14-2014 at 11:16 AM.
wow
They just now figuring this stuff out?
Amazing tbqh.
weak try fedora dude
that doesn't fit here in the slightest
actually I couldn't agree with you more..here's a condensed version of reality....
The Beginning Genesis Chapter 1
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
Kool dropping some knowledge on these punks.
pics or it didn't happen
God is a got.
The Great Dustspeck.
It evolved from The Great Dustspeck.
If so, then what does that make you?
pics coming right up son....
You're like that guy on Waiting that can't piss in a public bathroom. Just too easy.If so, then what does that make you?
Uh huh, just as I thought, a total loser with nothing valid or of any substance whatsoever.
No surprise to be quite honest.
Sounds like a Religion
Isn't Science about facts?
Just as Evolution has also.which has now been proven false.
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