Vast water beneath earth surface Ringwoodite
Recently, it seems astounding science news has been breaking every other day. A gigantic hole was found in the sun, a scary black hole pointed directly at mankind, and a continent that had been absent for 375 years was finally uncovered.
People are only now beginning to understand that the Earth’s crust conceals a sizable ocean. It comes out that a vast reservoir of water is hidden 400 miles beneath the surface in a rock called “ringwoodite”.
Hidden inside the Earth- within the first several hundred kilo meters below the crust- there is another ocean. It is most likely the largest ocean in the world. This water is not sloshing around in a big pool.
In a condition like a sponge that is neither a liquid nor a gas, water has previous been shown to be preserved inside mantle rock. The results were presented in a 2014 scientific publication with the title Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle.
Geophysicist Steve Jacosen claimed at the time that ringwoodite acts like a sponge, sucking up water. There is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water, he added.
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/ocean-beneath-earth-crust-ringwoodite-2659861289
According to Jacobsen, who was a member of the research team that made the findings, this mineral can hold a lot of water under the conditions of the deep mantle.
After researching earthquakes and learning that seismometers were picking up shockwaves beneath the Earth’s surface, scientists made the discoveries at the time.
That allowed them to determine that the water was being kept in the ringwoodite rock. A just 1% water content in the granite would indicate that there is three times as much water beneath the Earth’s surface as there is in its seas.
We don’t know why there is much more water in mantle and what is it for.
Ringwoodite of mantle
Ringwoodite is the most common mineral in deep Earth. It is a high-pressure phase of Mg2SiO4(magnesium silicate) formed at high temperatures and pressures of the Earth’s mantle between 525 and 660 km depth. It may also contain iron and hydrogen. It is polymorphous with the olivine phase forsterite.
Olivine, wadsleyite, and ringwoodite are polymorphs found in the upper mantle of the Earth. At depths greater than about 660 kilo meters(410 miles), other minerals including some with the perovskite structure are stable.
The ringwoodite is like sponge. There is something very special about the crystal structure of it that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water. This mineral can contain lots of water under conditions of the deep mantle.
Its melting point is 1750 ~ 1850 degrees C and colour is rich royal blue. There’s three times as much water below the Earth’s surface than in the ocean.
The bottom of ocean is still mysterious
Through the history, the ocean has been vital source of sustenance, transport, commerce, growth and inspiration. Yet for all our reliance on the ocean, more that 80 percent of this vast, underwater realms unmapped, unobserved and unexplored.
Unlike moons and planets, the seafloor can’t be mapped using radar, because ocean water tends to obstruct a satellite’s radio waves.
The pressure of the air pushing down on your body at sea level is about 15 pounds per square inch. You don’t feel it because the fluids in your body are pushing outward with the same force. If you went up into space above the Earth’s atmosphere, the pressure would decrease to zero.
But the intense pressure in the deep ocean makes it an extremely difficult environment to explore. Dive down into the ocean a few feet, though and a noticeable change occurs. You can feel an increase of pressure on your eardrums.
This is due to an increase in hydrostatic pressure, the force per unit area exerted by a liquid on an object. The deeper you go under the sea, the greater the pressure of the water pushing down on you and you could die.
Many animals that live in the sea have no problem at all with high pressure. For instance, whales can withstand the pressure because their bodies are more flexible.
Their ribs are bound by loose, bendable cartilage, which allows the rib cage to collapse at pressures that would easily snap bones. A whale’s lungs can also collapse safely under pressure, which keeps them from rupturing. Sperm whale can dive deeper at depths of 7,000 feet or more.
Source: indy100
