A photo from open sources
It turns out that deep inside the rocky mantle of the Earth is a huge amount of water, the whole ocean, which is several times more than all the oceans of our planet known to us. However discovered water is enclosed within rocks composed of a mineral ringwoodite, and is in a molecularly bound state that is not allows you to use it for its intended purpose. Ringwood is in the so-called “transitional” zone of the earth’s mantle, located on depths from 440 to 660 kilometers, between layers of red-hot rocks and the core of the earth. Ringwoodite forms the surface layer of the mantle, which It has the ability to absorb water like a sponge. He is a very rare type of mineral that forms at high pressures and temperatures from the olivine mineral. Research showed that due to its molecular structure, water ringwoodite may contain not in the form of liquid, steam or ice, but only in the form of hydroxide ions (bound oxygen atoms and hydrogen), and in deep mantle the amount absorbed a huge mineral of water. Despite the fact that specialists have long suspected of the existence of water contained in the so-called mantle transition zone, there is still no direct evidence of this It was. In March, a team of researchers discovered an unusual diamond, prisoner inside ringwood. This was the first instance found. ringwoodite, formed naturally in the bowels of our Earth (all other samples were created in the laboratory, either found in meteorites). Water was found in the mineral structure in an altered state, and although at that time the scientists did not know that this is quite normal, it was this find that suggested that in the transition zone of the earth’s mantle there can be a huge water tank. Previously, scientists believed that thanks to the crystal structure of ringwoodite, the transition zone of the mantle may retain water, but the fact that this changes the structure of water – even did not guess. It turns out if the mineral moves to the lower layers mantle, due to the increase in pressure and temperature occurs The melting process is a kind of mechanism for ridding the rock of water. IN in the laboratory, scientists conducted an experiment in order to understand what processes occur with the structure of the mineral, which descends from the transition zone to the core of the Earth. For synthesized ringwoodite recreated the temperature and pressure of the transition zone, and then slowly increased temperature and pressure to simulate conditions in the lower mantle. Gradually, ringwood turned into silicate perovskite, which in vivo moves much deeper into faster than ringwood. Comparing the result of the experiment with seismic wave velocity measurements at different depths (these waves pervade the Earth down to the core), experts got confirmation of your guesses. The fact is that by measuring speed waves, you can understand what types of rocks they went through. Through rocks saturated with water, waves travel more slowly than through “dry.” As a result, scientists came to the conclusion: the transition zone of the earth Mantle is a stable reservoir! New Results research not only confirmed this conjecture, but also presented scientists the opportunity to understand the water cycle on Earth, as well as more study in detail the circulation of water between the surface and internal reservoirs of our planet. In addition, the enviable size of this “reservoirs” make you take a fresh look at the very origin water on earth. Previously, many geologists believed that water was brought to us by comets and meteorites that collided with The earth. However, this discovery helped put forward an alternative hypothesis: gradually oceans leaked from the inside of the ancient Of the earth. This also explains why water is constantly circulating to groundwater from its surface and vice versa.
Water
