Inside the Earth the same water as in the oceans
Our planet is filled with water, say scientists from the University of Bayreuth in Germany. It is not only stored in liquid form.
In the depths of the earth contains about as much water as all the oceans. Scientists made this conclusion after examining water-rich rock fragments collected in the volcanic debris.
Water in the Earth’s mantle at depths of 410-660 km is not in the usual condition: it is “locked” in the crystals of minerals in the form of ions.
This suggests that the water in the bowels of the planet “formed” not because of external factors like asteroids and comets that have collided with the Ground.
To verify the validity of their assumptions, a team of scientists from Germany conducted laboratory experiments on synthetic rocks, which are used to model the deep layers of the planet.
Geophysical and seismic measurements show that the viscosity of the transition zone of the mantle is lower than the viscosity of the upper mantle. In this transition zone extends to 2900 km, to the very core of the planet.
The experiments demonstrated that the viscosity values in this area coincide with the indicators of non-synthetic rocks: volcanic mineral of the olivine group — ringwoodite quickly saturated with water. This suggests that the transition zone of the mantle is wet, not dry.
“A huge amount of water trapped within the mantle, leads inevitably to thoughts of how she got there. Or it has always existed there after solidification of the mantle. This is the key question of the evolution of the Earth, which also applies to other planets outside the Solar system,” concludes Steven Jacobson from northwestern University in Illinois.
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