Researchers have discovered our planet’s largest water reservoir 640km beneath our feet bound up in rock deep in the earth’s mantle.
It reportedly has enough water to satisfy the needs of billions of people.
Researchers from Northwestern University and University of New Mexico have found deep pockets of magma located beneath North America, a likely signature of the presence of water at these depths.
This water is not in a form familiar to us — it is not liquid, ice or vapour.
This fourth form is water trapped inside the molecular structure of the minerals in the mantle rock.
The discovery suggests water from the earth’s surface can be driven to such great depths by plate tectonics, eventually causing partial melting of the rocks found deep in the mantle.
Scientists have long speculated that water is trapped in a rocky layer of the earth’s mantle located between the lower mantle and upper mantle.
Jacobsen and seismologist Brandon Schmandt from University of New Mexico provided the first direct evidence that there may be water in this area of the mantle, known as the “transition zone,” on a regional scale.
The findings converged to produce evidence that melting may occur about 640km deep in the earth.
“H2O stored in mantle rocks, such as those containing the mineral ringwoodite, likely is the key to the process,” researchers said.
