Foreign Media: Chinese Scientists Discover a Huge Ancient Water Reservoir in the Deep Mantle of the Earth
A team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, published a study in the journal "Science," suggesting that Earth may have stored a large amount of water in its deep mantle more than 4 billion years ago, offering a new explanation for Earth's evolution from a molten ocean to a habitable planet.
The research indicates that the main mineral in the lower mantle—bridgmanite—is not as previously thought "incapable of storing water," but rather has significant water-absorbing capacity under high-temperature conditions. Researchers used a diamond anvil cell and laser heating technology to simulate a high-temperature and high-pressure environment of about 4100 degrees Celsius, finding that this mineral has a stronger water-locking efficiency when the temperature is higher during the crystallization process of magma.
Model estimates suggest that this mechanism could trap water equivalent to 0.08 to 1 times the total water volume of modern oceans within the solid mantle and gradually release it to the surface through volcanic activity over billions of years, contributing to the formation of the "blue Earth."
Original: toutiao.com/article/1852377532498944/
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