American scientists claim that under the surface of the Earth may contain large amounts of water on a planetary scale. Scientists have found in the earth’s mantle cavity filled with magma, which is a likely sign of the presence of water. But the physical state in which water does not match any of the known States of water.
SOURCE: PHOTO ARCHIVE PRAVDA.RU
Ringwoodite and water
But the physical state in which water does not match any of the known States of water is not a liquid, not steam and not ice. Part of this water, according to scientists, integrated into a layer of rocks in the Earth’s mantle located between the lower and upper mantle at depths in the range from 400 to 659 km
Us researchers for the first time clearly proved that in this zone, called transition, can actually be water.
Water can be pushed from the bowels of the planet up by tectonic plates, causing partial melting of rocks. Although the process of melting is typically observed near the Earth’s surface (at a depth of about 80 km), the scientists, based on a series of laboratory experiments and data obtained from seismographs, suggested that melting may occur at a depth of about 400 km.
In this process, water accumulates in the rocks of the mantle, and the mineral of the olivine group, known as ringwoodite, plays a key role.
It is ringwoodite, which is located in the lower mantle at depths from 520 to 660 km, has absorbed and holds already for billions of years, huge reserves of water. But this water is in him none of the usual conditions.
The weight of the layer of solid rock thickness of 400 km creates extremely high pressure, which, coupled with prohibitive temperatures superior to 1093°C, leads to the fact that a water molecule splits to form a hydroxyl radical (OH), which can be incorporated into the crystalline structure of the mineral. According to calculations of scientists, if only 1 percent of the total weight of rock of the mantle, located in the transition zone, consisted of water, this amount would exceed by almost three times the number of all the water in the oceans.
Deep water stocks of the Earth
The theoretical existence of ringwoodite predicted for a long time, but material evidence of his real presence in our planet has become almost accidental discovery by scientists in 2009 with the help of a microscope this mineral inside the diamond, mined in Brazil a year earlier.
This tiny piece of ringwoodite size of only 40 μm was formed, according to researchers, at a depth of at least 400 km and contains at least 1.4 percent water embedded in its molecular structure in the form of hydroxide ions.
To date, this iconic opening is the only confirmation of the presence of ringwoodite within our planet. All other samples of this mineral in the possession of scientists, obtained either by the laboratory or found in meteorites, where it is often found.
Research in the field of deep water stocks of the Earth still only in the beginning of his career. Because mankind knows so little about the complex processes occurring inside the globe. But now scientists managed to prove that, under North America on the same depths that correspond to the dehydration of ringwoodite, the processes of extensive melting, indicating the presence here of the enormous water reserves.
The ringwoodite discovery was yet another confirmation of the theory of the terrestrial origin of water and life-giving water on our planet is really a lot. But for the production of such water it is early, modern technology just can’t do this.
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AUTHOR IRINA OSIPYAN
