A wonderful discovery... a huge ocean of fresh water underground
A recent study conducted by a group of geologists reported that there is a huge freshwater ocean beneath the Earth's crust.
During the study published by the "Futuresm" website, the research team confirmed that the volume of this water is greater than the volume of water on the surface of the Earth, considering that this study may open the door to knowing how water appears on the surface of the planet.
The study indicated that there are huge quantities of water located 400 miles underground, stored in a rock known as “Ringo Wadite.”
Scientists at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA, revealed the existence of a reservoir of water deep within the surface of the planet Earth, which is three times the size of the planet’s oceans, as water constitutes about 71% of the planet’s surface.
According to the study, if the “Ringo and Diet” rock contains only 1% of the water on the Earth’s surface, this means that the volume of water present in these rocks within the mantle layer is 3 times the volume of water in the oceans, taking into account the enormous size of these rocks in Heart of the Earth.
It should be noted that this discovery could contribute significantly to knowing the origin of water on the planet in general, and may help determine the source of the seas and oceans in particular, and thus help in understanding life on planet Earth in a better way.
It is noteworthy that scientists had previously discovered that water is stored in a state that is not liquid, solid, or gaseous, but a different state similar to a sponge, within the “mantle rock” region, one of the layers of the Earth. A study was conducted in 2014 about this strange physical state of water. .
At the end of their study, after studying the earthquakes, the scientists discovered that seismographs were picking up shock waves beneath the Earth's surface, and they were later able to prove that water was trapped in the "Ringo and Diet" rock.
The study indicated the possibility of the existence of a huge water reservoir, as the high storage capacity of water in the Earth’s mantle, “which ranges in thickness from 410 to 660 kilometers,” indicates this.
Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, one of the co-authors of this study, stated that Ringo and Diet rocks are like a sponge. They absorb water greatly due to their crystalline structure, which allows them to trap water inside them and attract hydrogen.
Jacobsen, a member of the discovery team, continued his statement, saying: “It is possible that the (Ringo and Dite) rocks contain large quantities of water in the deep mantle.”
The geophysicist confirmed that what they found in their study is evidence of the water cycle around the entire Earth, and thus will help explain the presence of the huge amount of liquid water on the surface of the planet, which scientists have been searching for for many decades.
Some scientists suggest that the water on Earth comes from comets or asteroids, and this theory indicates that the solar system at the beginning of its formation was very hostile to all types of water on the planet, especially with the sun sending huge amounts of intense ultraviolet rays, which can break down water molecules. By removing hydrogen from the water molecule, which is the most prominent theory currently, according to NDTV.
This theory led scientists to believe that ice may have formed far away in the solar system, and that objects carried by it (asteroids or comets) later collided with a cooler Earth over millions of years, and the water first concentrated in the Earth's interior and in the mantle, becoming trapped in rocks.
The water was then gradually released to the surface due to the movement of tectonic plates to form seas and oceans, according to statements by geophysicist Steve Jacobsen.
Source: websites