Scientists Discover Massive ‘Ocean’ Beneath Earth’s Surface
By Harry Fletcher
Did you know that 71 percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water?
Okay, maybe that one was a little too easy. But did you know that there’s huge supply of water hidden underneath the Earth’s crust that’s three times bigger than the oceans that sit on the surface?
In 2014 scientists discovered that we essentially have a reservoir of water hidden beneath our feet – though it might not look that way at first.
Did you know that there’s a huge supply of water beneath the Earth’s surface? Credit: Pixabay
Did you know that there’s a huge supply of water beneath the Earth’s surface? Credit: Pixabay
This absolutely massive supply of water is buried a whopping 400 miles underground, so it’s not exactly accessible.
Plus, it’s contained inside a blue rock known as ‘ringwoodite’ in the Earth’s mantel, which acts as a sort of sponge for that huge body of H2O.
So it’s not a liquid, solid, or gas, but a fourth molecular structure of water contained inside the mantle rock.
“The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water, there is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water,” said geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, who was part of the monumental discovery.
“This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle.”
The watery rock was discovered by scientists from Northwestern University in Illinois using seismometers to measure the waves being generated by earthquakes across the US.
In their research, they found that the waves weren’t limited to the Earth’s surface, but moving throughout the planet’s core.
By measuring the speed and depth of those waves, researchers were able to work out what sort of rocks the water was being contained in – landing on ringwoodite in the end.
Research has found that ringwoodite can contain up to 1.5 percent water.
If the ringwoodite under the surface has just one percent water in its molecular build-up, it would mean that it holds three times more water than all of the oceans on the Earth’s surface.
This discovery could help scientists determine how Earth was formed, furthering the theory that the Earth’s water ‘came from within’, rather than from asteroids and comets.
Jacobsen explained at the time: “I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet.
“Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.”
For now, researchers have only found evidence of the ringwoodite rock beneath the surface of the US. Now, Jacobsen and his team want to determine whether or not this layer wraps around the entire planet Earth.
In a new development scientists have discovered a new ocean to beginning to form as Africa begins to split.
Researchers have found that the two parts of land, which make up the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent, have started to separate – making way for a whole new ocean to run through the divide.
Countries like Zambia and Uganda could one day have their own coastlines if the land mass continues to separate.
According to the peer-reviewed journal Geophysical Research Letters, geologists have been able to confirm that a new ocean is being created as the African continent is split in half.
Scientists have been able to locate the exact spot where, very deep underground, the continent – which has a land area of over 30 million square kilometres – first opened up.
The crack is positioned on the borders of three tectonic plates that have been gradually moving away from each other for a while now.
Geologists have noted that this complex tectonic process will make room for a totally new body of water millions of years from now.
The international effort has discovered that the crack, known as the East African Rift, currently runs 35 miles long after first appearing back in 2005 in the Ethiopian deserts.
“This is the only place on Earth where you can study how continental rift becomes an oceanic rift,” explained Christopher Moore, a Ph.D. doctoral student at the University of Leeds, via NBC News.
Moore utilised satellite radar technology to monitor volcanic activity in the East African region most commonly associated with the continent’s gradual breakup.
The crack resides on the borders of the boundaries of the African, Arabian and Somali tectonic plates and for the past 30 million years, the Arabian plate has been slowly moving away from the African continent.
This exact tectonic shift has been seen before as it is what created both the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden between the two connected landmasses.
Additionally, the Somali plate is also moving away from the African plate – peeling its way through the East African Rift Valley.
Through the use of GPS instruments, researchers have been able to make precise measurements of these land movements.
Ken Macdonald, a marine geophysicist and professor emeritus based at the University of California, explained: “With GPS measurements, you can measure rates of movement down to a few millimetres per year.
He added: “As we get more and more measurements from GPS, we can get a much greater sense of what’s going on.”
“The Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea will flood in over the Afar region and into the East African Rift Valley and become a new ocean, and that part of East Africa will become its own separate small continent,” Macdonald confirmed.
The three tectonic plates are moving away from each other at a range of differing speeds, but the geophysicist has explained that the Arabian plate is moving away from Africa at a rate of approximately one inch per year.
Both the African and Somali plate are reported to be breaking away at an even slower rate, at round half an inch to 0.2 inches every year.