In a surprising investigation, scientists have found a reservoir of water deep beneath the Earth’s surface, which is three times the size of all the Earth’s oceans. This underground water reservoir exists about 700 km below our surface, which no one had ever imagined. This study challenges the notion that water on Earth came from meteorites or comets. The study revealed that the Earth’s oceans originated from its core.
In fact, scientists at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois were trying to find out the origin of Earth’s water. But this discovery led researchers to an unexpected discovery and they found a huge ocean within the Earth’s mantle, 700 kilometers below the surface. This ocean, hidden within a blue rock known as ringwoodite, challenges our understanding of where Earth’s water came from.
The size of this underground sea is three times the size of all the surface oceans of the planet combined. This new discovery also proposes a new theory about Earth’s water cycle. Research suggests that water would not have reached Earth through comet impacts. Rather, as some theories have suggested, the Earth’s oceans may have gradually come into existence by emerging from its core.
This is the first time that signs of water have been found so deep below the Earth’s surface. (Symbolic photo: Shutterstock)
To uncover this underground ocean, researchers used an array of 2,000 seismometers across the United States, analyzing seismic waves from more than 500 earthquakes. Waves passing through the Earth’s inner layers, including its core, slow down when passing through wet rocks, which helps scientists infer the presence of this vast water reservoir.
Now, with this revolutionary discovery, researchers want to gather more seismic data from around the world to determine whether mantle melting like this is a common phenomenon? Their findings could revolutionize our understanding of the water cycle on Earth, providing a new perspective on one of our planet’s most fundamental processes.
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Tags: Amazing news, Bizarre news, OMG News, Weird news
FIRST PUBLISHED: April 2, 2024, 20:06 IST
