[Rockhounds] Scientists Discover Massive "Ocean" Near Earth's Core

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Scientists have discovered a reservoir of water three times the volume of
all the oceans beneath the Earth's surface, according to an international
study. The water has been found between the transition zone of the Earth's
upper and lower mantle. The research team analyzed a rate diamond formed
660 meters below the Earth's surface using techniques including Raman
spectroscopy and FTIR spectrometry, ANI reported.

The study confirmed something that for a long time it was just a theory,
namely that ocean water accompanies subducting slabs and thus enters the
transition zone. This means that our planet's water cycle includes the
Earth's interior.

"These mineral transformations greatly hinder the movements of rock in the
mantle," explains Prof. Frank Brenker from the Institute for Geosciences at
Goethe University in Frankfurt. For example, mantle plumes -- rising
columns of hot rock from the deep mantle -- sometimes stop directly below
the transition zone. The movement of mass in the opposite direction also
comes to standstill.

Brenker says, "Subducting plates often have difficulty in breaking through
the entire transition zone. So there is a whole graveyard of such plates in
this zone underneath Europe."

However, until now it was not known what the long-term effects of "sucking"
material into the transition zone were on its geochemical composition and
whether larger quantities of water existed there.

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/scientist-discover-massive-ocean-near-earths-core-3393825