Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Huge ocean of water locked in earth's crust

My Paper, Monday, June 16, 2014, Page A6, News, Top Stories
From http://epaper.mypaper.sg/emnd/fvxen/fvxp/fvxpress.php?param=2014-06-16
Source Website: http://mypaper.sg/top-stories/huge-ocean-water-locked-earths-crust-20140616
By Agencies, mypaper, myp@sph.com.sg, Published on Jun 16, 2014


Schematic partial cross section of the Earth showing the location of ringwoodite, which make up approximately 60% by volume of this part of the transition zone.
PHOTO: Schematic partial cross section of the Earth showing the location of ringwoodite, which make up approximately 60% by volume of this part of the transition zone. The diamond containing the water-bearing ringwoodite inclusion found by originated from approximately 500 km beneath the Earth's surface, where a large mass of water may accumulate by the subduction and recycling of oceanic lithosphere, into the transition zone.
By Mark Prigg, Published: 22:36 GMT, 12 March 2014 | Updated: 14:21 GMT, 13 March 2014
Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd, Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtiS3HXuMptu5Q0i6h8aNIy-WAzj2JjHv-u_Xhiqmmr6pzhvsZig0ULeFeWqoLWHxgAknkIaXB3G4NurU0bypr6ajhOQD8xfgGNhVPr5kaCqlMdq7xdpct4PwPXPeTVtJo5narLIViHcY/s1600/article-2579584-1C3DE79A00000578-456_634x468.jpg
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014/03/12/article-2579584-1C3DE79A00000578-456_634x468.jpg
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2579584/The-vast-reservoir-hidden-Earths-crust-holds-water-ALL-oceans.html


VAST amounts of water - up to three times as much as in all the oceans - are now thought to be trapped under the Earth's crust.

Seventy per cent of the earth's surface is made up of water, but this is only a drop in the ocean, compared with what can be found about 660km underground, said a study in the journal Science.

But it is not sloshing around under our feet. Locked into the molecular structure of minerals that absorb water, it is not liquid, or even ice.

Northwestern University geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, who co-authored the study, said that the finding suggests that our water came from within and helps explains how oceans formed.

"I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on our planet," he told The Guardian.
By Agencies, mypaper, myp@sph.com.sg, Published on Jun 16, 2014


Rough diamond hints at vast quantities of water inside Earth
PHOTO: Rough diamond hints at vast quantities of water inside Earth
Battle-scarred diamond provides evidence of 'wet zone' 410km below the surface where water is locked up inside minerals
The diamond is pitted from its violent journey, which ended with the stone shooting up through the Earth's crust at around 70km/h.
Photograph: University of Alberta
Posted by The Guardian, Wednesday 12 March 2014 18.36 GMT

If such a massive body of water exists that far below the Earth's initial crust it must be heated in part by some sort of thermal venting systems, which have been known to support isolated ecosystems far into the depths of the ocean. I would bet there exist creatures down there unlike anything humankind has ever seen.

And perhaps this is a bit much to speculate, but I wonder even if the pressurized environment might have had something to do with the beginning of life on Earth in the first place.
Posted by DoesNotComputer Slapchips on 13 March 2014 3:27am

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK8xQyh2-RKBcJE7Qv_R9edKyREln_bBuU6CoNUX7Ssm00AE7dXIkdmdfBKG5Q3dFmAoWBkLBjbgovKC8izHgM8BC_d6nvIys2M7A8b0NGoXKlBSG1w7yCQJ9LoUgYv5urRXAhg7BgRyM/s1600/Diamond-from-Earths-wet-z-010.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/3/12/1394631959616/Diamond-from-Earths-wet-z-010.jpg
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/12/rough-diamond-water-earth-wet-zone



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