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ocean in earth crust? Researchers make gigantic discoveries

2022-10-26T10:56:54.970Z


ocean in the earth's crust? Researchers make gigantic discoveries Created: 10/26/2022, 12:50 p.m By: Caroline Schäfer Structure of the Earth: Significant amounts of water have been found in the transition zone. © imago Researchers discover that there are huge amounts of water in the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle of the earth - significantly more than in the oceans. Kassel


ocean in the earth's crust?

Researchers make gigantic discoveries

Created: 10/26/2022, 12:50 p.m

By: Caroline Schäfer

Structure of the Earth: Significant amounts of water have been found in the transition zone.

© imago

Researchers discover that there are huge amounts of water in the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle of the earth - significantly more than in the oceans.

Kassel – What has been suspected for a long time is now certain.

There is significantly more water on earth than previously thought.

However, the water masses are not in the ocean, but in the so-called transition zone (transition zone) between the upper and lower mantle.

This is the result of an international study in which researchers from the Institute for Geosciences at Goethe University Frankfurt were also involved.

ocean in earth crust?

Rock can absorb huge amounts of water

The transition zone that separates the upper and lower mantles is between 410 and 660 kilometers deep.

The pressure prevailing there ensures that the crystal structure of the mineral olivine, which makes up around 70 percent of the upper mantle, changes, it is said.

At a depth of about 410 kilometers, the mineral changes to wadsleyite, at 520 kilometers to rindwoodite and thus has an even denser structure.

Boundary layer between the upper and lower mantle

depth

410 and 660 kilometers

Print

up to 23,000 bars

Source: Goethe University Frankfurt

Unlike olivine, the minerals wadsleyite and ringwoodite can store large amounts of water.

As a result, the transition zone would theoretically be able to hold six times the amount of water in the oceans, the university said.

In the interior of the earth, however, the water is not found in liquid form, as is usually the case, but enclosed in rock.

The hydrated rock does not drip and does not feel damp either, emphasized the professor.

Ocean water enters the earth's crust as the plates subside

It was previously known that tectonic plates repeatedly submerge into the transition zone.

“With the subducting plates, deep-sea sediments are also piggybacked into the interior of the earth.

These sediments can store large amounts of water and CO2," explained Frank Brenker from the university in a statement.

"How much of it reaches the transition zone in the form of more stable, hydrous minerals and carbonates was previously unclear.

And thus also whether large amounts of water are actually stored there.”

In the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle, researchers discovered large amounts of water that are bound in the rock.

© Christina Falkenberg/imago

The study by the German-Italian-American research team has now provided the answer.

For this purpose, a 1.5 centimeter diamond from Botswana was analyzed.

This was formed at a depth of 660 kilometers and had numerous water pockets.

The chemical composition also showed that the diamond came from a normal piece of the earth's mantle.

"With this study, we have demonstrated that the transition zone is not a dry sponge, but rather stores significant amounts of water," says Brenker.

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Study: Amounts of water ensure dynamic Earth's mantle

Due to the high water content, the mantle becomes more dynamic.

So-called mantle plumes, rising streams of hot rock from the deeper mantle, already melt in the transition zone and not just before the earth's surface.

As a result, the transition zone, "otherwise actually a barrier to the dynamics, (...) suddenly becomes the driving force in the global material cycle." This means a stronger movement of the earth's plates, which in turn can submerge into the transition zone.

(cheese)

According to a study, liquid water was discovered at least on Mars.

Researchers find evidence that there is an underground lake on Mars.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-10-26

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