From time to time, amazing scientific findings are discovered that leave us amazed, and recently it has been discovered an ocean hidden under the earth’s crust that has left many speechless, even the most expert.
In accordance with Independentthis massive ocean it is found 400 miles deep, stored in a rock called “ringwoodite” in the Earth’s mantle. The scientists discovered that water is stored in the rock in a spongy statewhich is not a liquid, solid or gas, but a fourth state.
The discovery was published in a scientific paper titled “Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle,” in which the findings are described.
Steve Jacobsen, a geophysicist and member of the team responsible for the discovery, explained: “Ringwoodite is like a sponge, it absorbs water, there is something very special about the crystalline structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water”.
Why is this find so fascinating?
Jacobsen added that this mineral can hold a lot of water in deep mantle conditions: “I think we’re finally seeing evidence of a water cycle throughout the Earth, which may help explain the large amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been searching for this missing deep water for decades”.
The discovery was made possible by studying earthquakes, where seismometers picked up shock waves under the Earth’s surface. From there, the scientists were able to establish that the water was being held in the rock known as ringwoodite.
The most impressive thing about the study is that If the rock contained just 1 percent water, that would mean that there is three times as much water under the Earth’s surface as there is in the surface oceans..
