8 months ago

Chinese Researchers Discover Earth's Mantle Stored Ancient Oceans

Chinese Researchers Discover Earth's Mantle Stored Ancient Oceans
Chinese Researchers Reveal How Earth's Deep Mantle Stored Oceans Of Water Billions Of Years Ago · NDTV

Scientists in China found out how Earth might have stored a lot of water a long time ago.

They discovered that a special rock called bridgmanite in the deep part of Earth, called the mantle, can hold water.

This happened when Earth was very hot and had oceans of magma.

The scientists did experiments to show that bridgmanite can trap water, especially when it's very hot.

This water was stored deep inside Earth and slowly came back to the surface through volcanoes over billions of years, making our planet habitable.

This helps us understand how Earth became the blue, watery world we live on today.

Key facts

Researchers
Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Study Focus
Water storage in Earth's deep mantle
Key Mineral
Bridgmanite
Timeframe
More than 4 billion years ago
Water Storage Capacity
0.08 to 1 times today's oceans
Study Method
Diamond anvil cell and laser heating
Publication
Journal Science

Sources

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