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A large number of countries are suffering from severe water crises, with approximately 4 billion people – nearly two-thirds of the world’s population – facing water shortages for at least a month each year, in need of more sources of the life-saving compound. Researchers at Northwestern University, Illinois (US) have discovered a vast reservoir of water, three times the size of Earth’s oceans, in a rock called ringwoodite 700 km below the planet’s surface.
The findings were first published in the journal ‘Science’ in 2014 under the title ‘Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle’. The study also presented unique properties of ringwoodite.
Researchers believe that this ocean, hidden beneath the surface within a blue rock called ringwoodite, is likely the primary source of water on Earth’s surface. The size of this underground ocean is three times the total volume of all the planet’s surface oceans combined.
“This is strong evidence that water on Earth came from within,” Science magazine quoted study lead author Steven Jacobsen, a researcher at Northwestern University in Illinois, as saying.
“Ringwoodite is like a sponge that soaks up water, there is something special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water,” the geophysicist said in the study paper.
He added, “I think we’re finally seeing evidence of the entire Earth’s water cycle, which could help explain the vast amounts of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been searching for this missing deep water for decades.” Looking for.” ,
To uncover this underground ocean, researchers used an array of 2000 seismometers across the United States, analyzing seismic waves from more than 500 earthquakes. Waves traveling through the Earth’s inner layers, including its core, slow down when passing through wet rock, helping scientists infer the presence of this vast water reservoir.
“The high water storage capacity of minerals in the Earth’s mantle transition zone (410- to 660-km depth) suggests the possibility of a deep H2O reservoir, which could cause dehydration melting of the vertically flowing mantle. We “Investigated the effects of downwelling from the transition zone in the lower mantle with high-pressure laboratory experiments, numerical modeling and seismic P-to-S conversions,” the scientists said.
“These results suggest hydration of a large area of the transition zone and that dehydration melting may act to trap H2O in the transition zone,” the researchers said.
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Published: 03 April 2024, 04:10 PM IST
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