A gigantic ocean is hidden under the Earth’s crust, just 700 kilometres beneath Earth’s surface, reports said. What’s more shocking is that the ocean is three times the volume of Earth’s surface oceans combined.
Scientists from Northwestern University of Evanston, Illinois have made the discovery. The findings have been presented in detail in a 2014 scientific paper titled ‘Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle’, NDTV reported.
The quest to find the origins of Earth’s water led researchers to the massive find. The report suggests that the hidden ocean is concealed within a blue rock known as ‘ringwoodite’.
NDTV quoted Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen, a key member of the discovery team, as saying, “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.”
The scientists and researchers made the discovery after studying Earthquakes. They discovered that seismometers were picking up shockwaves under the Surface of the Earth.
“The high water storage capacity of minerals in Earth’s mantle transition zone implies the possibility of a deep H2O reservoir, which could cause dehydration melting of vertically flowing mantle. We examined the effects of downwelling from the transition zone into the lower mantle with high pressure laboratory experiments, numerical modeling, and seismic P-To-S conversions,” NDTV quoted the scientists.