There Is A Massive Secret Underground Ocean Bigger Than All Oceans Combined
Somehow, the Earth just keeps on getting bigger. According to a recently published paper titled “Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle” (via Brighter Side of News), far underneath the ground that we walk on – around 400 miles beneath the planet’s surface – is an underground ocean.
Simply existing inside of a rock type referred to as “ringwoodite,” the new discovery will have magnificent implications for how scientists will be able to better understand the future of the planet’s water resources and cycle.
The Underground Ocean Exists As A Fourth State Of Matter
While this firms up their theory, researchers have long understood that water, like this underground ocean, could be locked into mantle rock. But, this finding leads them in a new step toward understanding exactly what this “water” is. You see, the massive reservoir isn’t identified as a solid, liquid, or gas but is rather a fourth state of matter entirely, putting a ton of future work on the plate of researchers.
Describing the ringwoodite as “a sponge, soaking up water,” Steve Jacobsen, a geophysicist working on the team dedicated to uncovering more information about the underground ocean, explained what this fourth state of matter is like.
While they’ve just broken the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the mysterious underground ocean, Jacobsen says that researchers have been looking for this massive underground reservoir “for decades.”
Speaking to the formation of the rock that has encased the water, Jacobsen says that due to its “crystal structure,” it brings in, and catches, hydrogen and water. The geophysicist goes on to explain that there’s still a lot to be discovered when it comes to the world below us, suggesting that the “mineral” drawing the hydrogen and water in is able to hold “a vast amount of water.”
While they’ve just broken the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the mysterious underground ocean, Jacobsen says that researchers have been looking for this massive underground reservoir “for decades.”
He also notes that, hopefully, more evidence like this finding will pop up to better explain Earth’s baffling water cycle. From this initial discovery, scientists can now better hope to understand “the enormous amount of liquid water that graces the surface of our life-sustaining planet.”
And, we have what could turn into natural disasters to thank for the exciting findings. As scientists studied the mysteries surrounding earthquakes and tremors, they inadvertently discovered that shockwaves were coming from far, far beneath the planet’s surface. This led them to work double time, soon uncovering the underground ocean found within the ringwoodite.
The new discovery will have magnificent implications for how scientists will be able to better understand the future of the planet’s water resources and cycle.
Proving that not only are we at the beginning of something big but also pointing to the purely astounding size of the underground ocean. If the ringwoodite was holding just 1 percent water, it would be more than three times the amount that all of the oceans on Earth’s surface are holding. If looking up at the stars in the night sky didn’t make you feel small, this new information should do the trick.
Still, there are miles to go as those behind the scientific discovery have just scratched the surface when it comes to the gargantuan underground ocean miles and miles beneath our feet. But with the research community diving into everything from particles to artificial intelligence and even studies about how smelling certain things during sleep could make us smarter, it’s truly an exciting time to be alive.
