This ocean is three times larger than all the seas on land combined.
Looking at a world map, you might think humanity has explored all the seas and oceans that make up our planet quite some time ago.
However, it has only been a decade since scientists discovered a gigantic ocean that is three times larger than all the seas on land.
This gigantic ocean was discovered in 2014, hidden beneath the Earth’s crust.
In a March 12 issue of the journal Nature, Canadian scientists reported the discovery of an extremely rare mineral that provides evidence of the existence of a vast ocean of water beneath the Earth’s crust, located 400 to 600 kilometers away from where we live.
This discovery brings to mind the mystical imagery described by French science fiction writer Jules Verne in “Journey to the Center of the Earth” 150 years ago.
Ringwoodite mineral. (Photo: systematic-mineralogy.com)
Scientists believe that this mysterious ocean may contain an amount of water equivalent to all the oceans on the planet combined.
The evidence for the existence of this ocean comes from a mineral known as ringwoodite. This name was given after Australian geologist Ted Ringwood formulated a hypothesis suggesting that there must be a special mineral formed in the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle of the Earth’s crust under extreme pressure and high temperatures.
Analyses show that 1.5% of this mineral layer contains water molecules. However, to date, ringwoodite has only been found in meteorites.
According to New Scientist, the discovery of this new ocean has helped clarify some aspects of water on Earth, as some geologists believed it originated from comets colliding with our planet, but this finding supports the idea that our oceans instead “flowed out” from within our planet.
There is an ocean better than this one, but you won’t know about it; it comes from another layer of the Earth. (Photo: Getty Images).
Steve Jacobsen, a geophysicist who was involved in the discovery of this astonishing underground ocean, stated that this is “clear evidence that water on Earth comes from within.”
He remarked: “Ringwoodite is like a sponge, absorbing water; there is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to absorb hydrogen and hold water. This mineral can contain a lot of water under deep mantle conditions.”
Regarding how they actually found it, Jacobsen and his team used 2,000 seismometers to study the waves generated by over 500 earthquakes, as he said they “make the Earth ring like a bell for many days.”
“Scientists have been searching for this missing deep water for decades.” So now you know – there is another ocean beneath us, and Jacobson and his team want to determine whether it surrounds the entire Earth.
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