Brazilian diamond hints at vast water reserve deep inside Earth - Polidicks

[url]http://news.msn.com/science-technology/brazilian-diamond-hints-at-vast-water-reserve-deep-inside-earth?ocid=fbmsn[/url] [quote]The diamond contained a mineral called ringwoodite that entrapped a significant amount of water, an international team of scientists reported this week. The discovery of the water-rich mineral indicates that mammoth amounts of water are trapped in a zone 255 to 410 miles (410 to 660 kilometers) beneath the surface between Earth's upper and lower mantle, the researchers said. ... "That particular zone in the Earth, the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world's oceans put together," Pearson said in a statement.[/quote] Can someone tell me if this means that there might be a new source of fresh water? The title seemed optimistic, but then it didn't really clarify that. Either way I hope there's fantastic new forms of life in there.

[quote][B]the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world's oceans put together,"[/B] [/quote] the key word is [I]might[/I]; but holy mother of fuck that is a lot of water. Life always finds a way so I can't even imagine what life is down there. This is an amazing discovery; seriously. But yeah we need to see if it's fresh or salt water

More water than all the world's oceans put together hidden inside the Earth's mantle? How is that even possible? [IMG]http://www.columbia.edu/~vjd1/mantle_structure.gif[/IMG] Don't know how accurate this image is, but basically there would be a shit ton of water between the upper and lower mantles according to the article correct? All the way around?

Let's poke a hole into it and see what happens if we release all that pressure at once!

[QUOTE=Killer900;44226881]More water than all the world's oceans put together hidden inside the Earth's mantle? How is that even possible? [IMG]http://www.columbia.edu/~vjd1/mantle_structure.gif[/IMG] Don't know how accurate this image is, but basically there would be a shit ton of water between the upper and lower mantles according to the article correct? All the way around?[/QUOTE] Well, I mean I figure it's distributed in pockets and caves and stuff, not just like a solid layer of water. The earth is pretty big inside, I could totally see just massively huge cavities that filled with water, I'd assume its ocean and therefor salt water though. I want to see what OvB has to say about this

[quote]the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world's oceans put together,[/quote] I can't wrap this around my head, this just isn't possible, is it? Wouldn't Earths' crust just like, crumble? I highly doubt it, even though I'm not a scientist/physicist this just seems like an exaggeration.

Any possibility of bacterial life?

Oh, I see, above dude kind of answered it.

Well, there is a huge colossal aquifer which is shared by Argentina, Paraguay AND Brazil (Can you imagine how large is that? Jesus) So I imagine there would be more, or more water underground.

prepare for reptilians and shoggoths

[QUOTE=Fingers!!!;44226908]I can't wrap this around my head, this just isn't possible, is it? Wouldn't Earths' crust just like, crumble? I highly doubt it, even though I'm not a scientist/physicist this just seems like an exaggeration.[/QUOTE] [quote=the article]This water is not in the form of underground liquid oceans, but rather is locked inside minerals, the scientists said.[/quote]

better re-roll a new world this ones got an aquifer everywhere

[img]http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/a5/14659c46b852e6f15b0579b676142/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg[/img] This stone looks so cool

[QUOTE=sweetbro;44226974]evidence that I didn't read the article well[/QUOTE] Well there you go

So say a lake is water on top of earth on top of water on top of earth?

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44226901]Well, I mean I figure it's distributed in pockets and caves and stuff, not just like a solid layer of water. The earth is pretty big inside, I could totally see just massively huge cavities that filled with water, I'd assume its ocean and therefor salt water though. I want to see what OvB has to say about this[/QUOTE] oceans are salty because of the cycle of evaporation, rain, and runoff/erosion that happens on land. I'd assume water trapped in [i]the mantle[/i] (provided it's pocketed somehow and not just vaporous bubbles floating through endless molten rock) would be fresh by most standards, though probably ultra sulferous due to the whole "exposed and surrounded by an eternal ocean of lava" thing. I doubt there'd be much life to find but damn it'd shake up the science community if we could prove something as radical as there being magnitudes more water on earth than we thought. It'd likely reshape our speculation regarding the composition of other planets as well, and increase our hope for finding extraterrestrial life [QUOTE=proch;44227043]So say a lake is water on top of earth on top of water on top of earth?[/QUOTE] reminds me of Lake Mindemoya, the largest island in a lake on an island in a lake in the world

Forget the water, I just want to see what kind of new fucked up pokemons we can get

Maybe we will find mole people!

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44226901]Well, I mean I figure it's distributed in pockets and caves and stuff, not just like a solid layer of water. The earth is pretty big inside, I could totally see just massively huge cavities that filled with water, I'd assume its ocean and therefor salt water though. I want to see what OvB has to say about this[/QUOTE] No. It's embedded in the crytal structure, even if there was a way for us to dig that deep and gather some of that mineral all you'd see is a rock.

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44226901] I want to see what OvB has to say about this[/QUOTE] Well the ocean is actually pretty thin if you look at a cross section of earth. It's probably not even noticeable. Would be like a tissue paper laying on a globe. If the zone really is 255 to 410 miles then it could dwarf the ocean, which is about 7 miles at its very deepest, ~2-3 miles on average. But as another sweetbro pointed out, It's not liquidy water like an aquifer. In this case the water is locked up inside the Ringwoodite which is a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxide"]hydroxide.[/URL] [quote]Ringwoodite is notable for being able to contain water within its structure, present not as a liquid but as hydroxide ions (oxygen and hydrogen atoms bound together).[/quote] Kind of similar to what they found on Mars.

By the way the process of hydrating crystals of Olivin is called serpentinization and it happens all the time when plates subduct. One product of that is Serpentin which looks like this [img]http://www.vfmg-weiden.de/wal2.jpg[/img] or this [img]http://mineralienzimmer.heimat.eu/Serpentin-0366.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=OvB;44227216]Well the ocean is actually pretty thin if you look at a cross section of earth. It's probably not even noticeable. Would be like a tissue paper laying on a globe. If the zone really is 255 to 410 miles then it could dwarf the ocean, which is about 7 miles at its very deepest, ~2-3 miles on average. But as another sweetbro pointed out, It's not liquidy water like an aquifer. In this case the water is locked up inside the Ringwoodite which is a [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroxide"]hydroxide.[/URL] Kind of similar to what they found on Mars.[/QUOTE] So does this mean we'll be able to drill for water in the same way we drill for oil when the time comes? I think we all know there's a pretty big fresh water problem looming... could this be a solution?

[QUOTE=Fingers!!!;44226908]I can't wrap this around my head, this just isn't possible, is it? Wouldn't Earths' crust just like, crumble? I highly doubt it, even though I'm not a scientist/physicist this just seems like an exaggeration.[/QUOTE] I think it's cause it's trapped in porous rock. Like I don't think there's vast stereotypical elder scrolls style underground lakes, more like it's trapped in super hard compressed sponge like geology.

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44227318]So does this mean we'll be able to drill for water in the same way we drill for oil when the time comes? I think we all know there's a pretty big fresh water problem looming... could this be a solution?[/QUOTE] No not at all. It's not liquid, it's part of the crystal structure. Also all water below the upper few hundred metres of soil is saltwater, it's a big problm in Africa right now because they are overpumping and the water is going upwards. I'm majoring in Geophysics so if you guys have questions I'll try to answer.

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44227318]So does this mean we'll be able to drill for water in the same way we drill for oil when the time comes? I think we all know there's a pretty big fresh water problem looming... could this be a solution?[/QUOTE] Assuming you could chemically extract the water out of the rocks (which I don't think you can), the deepest drilling projects to date don't even scratch the surface. Would probably be easier and more economic to desalinate.

[QUOTE=Killuah;44227343]No not at all. It's not liquid, it's part of the crystal structure. Also all water below the upper few hundred metres of soil is saltwater, it's a big problm in Africa right now because they are overpumping and the water is going upwards. I'm majoring in Geophysics so if you guys have questions I'll try to answer.[/QUOTE] So does that mean that the oil trapped in shale is liquid? I always assumed that they had to process it somehow. So this is more exciting from a scientific standpoint than a useful-for-humanity one then?

Also the water that's entering the mantle from subducting plates is thought to be a major driving force for volcanic activity in back arcs because it lowers the melting temperature.

get Brendan Fraser on the line asap

[QUOTE=frozensoda;44227367]So does that mean that the oil trapped in shale is liquid? I always assumed that they had to process it somehow. So this is more exciting from a scientific standpoint than a useful-for-humanity one then?[/QUOTE] Yes because the depest we've been drilling is around 12 km [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kola_Superdeep_Borehole[/url] Now when gathering info about layers that deep it's usally done by seismic tomography of earthquake body waves traveling through the earth and there is THOUGHT to be water down there because of melting models and laboratory experiments. We can simulate several gigapascals of pressure while maintaining temperatures of 400+ °C but it's technically impossible so build sensors for that so laboratory evidence is not final. So there is and was the theory of water being down there but this is actual solid evidence.

If there's going to be any life there, it'd be cellular. The conditions of the pressure and lack of space that far down are likely too much for complex lifeforms. It's fascinating regardless.