A reservoir of water three times the volume of all the oceans has been discovered deep beneath the Earths surface. The finding could help explain where Earths seas came from. The water is hidden inside a blue rock called ringwoodite that lies 700 kilometres underground in the mantle, the layer of hot rock between Earths surface and its core. The huge size of the reservoir throws new light on the origin of Earths water. Some geologists think water arrived in comets as they struck the planet, but the new discovery supports an alternative idea that the oceans gradually oozed out of the interior of the early Earth. Its good evidence the Earths water came from within, says Steven Jacobsen of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The hidden water could also act as a buffer for the oceans on the surface, explaining why they have stayed the same size for millions of years.
Posted on: Sun, 15 Jun 2014 02:29:16 +0000
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