Diamond Suggests Presence of Water Deep Within Earth 48
sciencehabit writes "A 40 micrometer crystal trapped inside a diamond unearthed by magma in Brazil could help settle a long-standing debate about the amount of water in Earth's mantle. Spectroscopic analysis reveal that the crystal contains hydrogen-oxygen bonds, which suggests it's composed of at least 1.4% water. The place where the diamond was produced--Earth's lower mantle--may not be typical of the entire lower mantle, but if it is then there could be a lot of water down there. This would be important, as changes in the temperature in the mantle could cause it to expel highly pressurized steam, which could lead to volcanic eruptions."
A better article (Score:5, Informative)
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/earth-secret-reservoir-water-scientists-191039455.html [yahoo.com]
Hans Keppler, a geologist at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, cautioned against extrapolating the size of the subterranean water find from a single sample of ringwoodite.
And he also said
"In some ways it is an ocean in Earth's interior, as visualised by Jules Verne... although not in the form of liquid water," Keppler said in a commentary also published by Nature.
Ain't nothing swimming around down there.
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I have one word for your feeble heart, infidel: Cthulhu.
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Ain't nothing swimming around down there.
That's what she said
Re:A better article (Score:4, Funny)
"This sample really provides extremely strong confirmation that there are local wet spots deep in the Earth in this area,"
Did they have to roll it around in flour to find out? Just wondering.
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Nope, wet thing flock to geologists. They know how to carefully explore all the layers.
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His writings in Journey To The Center Of The Earth turned out to be much less real, but you still have to admire his imagination.
The question is ... (Score:1)
presence of water deep within earth, and more... (Score:1, Interesting)
A lot of people still not aware that deep within earth is lots of water and vegetation. Forget what you heared in school about earth inner structure, those are simply provided to misguide you. Deep within every planet is an eco system much better than what we have on the surface of the earth.
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A lot of people still not aware that deep within earth is lots of water and vegetation. Forget what you heared in school about earth inner structure, those are simply provided to misguide you. Deep within every planet is an eco system much better than what we have on the surface of the earth.
vegetation?
Yes what else do expect the underground civilisation to live on?
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The walls were enhanced with rock weed, and mosses from the silurian epoch
and later
Not only had they found life in the water, they had found a flowing guide to the centre of the earth
(Rick Wakeman's version of Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth)
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This should be amusing. (Score:4, Funny)
This is really obscure - it might take a couple of months, but I predict that this is at some point going to be noticed by creationists who will then read the summary (not the paper of course, just the summary) and proudly declare that this is where the water from the great flood disappeared to.
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Re:This should be amusing. (Score:4, Interesting)
It gets worse; the Guardian's comments are full of people sneering about how we are going to destroy this precious natural water resource now we know it's there. Part of me died inside.
http://www.theguardian.com/sci... [theguardian.com]
Re: This should be amusing. (Score:1)
Re: This should be amusing. (Score:4, Insightful)
Considering how many communities live in coastal areas, I could easily logically deduce that after a great ice age, communities in this area flooded which lead to them being abandoned and left under water today. Some such communities are thought to have existed and some have even been found. A great flood doesn't have to cover the entire earth, just enough of it to affect were civilization exists.
This is not that foreign of a concept to me. I am surprised that others seem to have a problem with it.
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Lots of cultures have a myth about a dangerous animal, I don't think you could use that as proof that one asshole shapeshifter was terrorising all human peoples.
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No, they already solved that. The most popular YEC explanation is that the water was in a spherical ice shell just at the top of the atmosphere, held in place by divine will. The shell stopped cosmic radiation reaching earth, which is why people could live for many centuries*. Then God said 'screw it' and stopped willing the ice to stay in place, so it fell down and flooded the earth. Where the water went after is more of an issue.
*In some varients, UV radiation, but then they have to deal with the problem
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The predominant theory among creationists is that the water of the flood is mostly most in the oceans -- The elevations of the continental masses where raised, allowing the water to flow to the oceans. This is kind of the same as the scientific opinion except for the timeframe of months vs. millions of years. Well, that and the scientific opinion that there was no world-wide flood/
Serious Study (Score:1)
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While religion is never settled and usually takes about a century to change, after which adherents will insist it was like that all alone.
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This is really obscure - it might take a couple of months, but I predict that this is at some point going to be noticed by creationists who will then read the summary (not the paper of course, just the summary) and proudly declare that this is where the water from the great flood disappeared to.
Long past that point. I can remember seeing something on the internet at least a decade ago talking about not only where the water went to, but where it came from to begin with. The idea that there is water trapped deep in the mantel is not new or surprising. It has been known for along time, this is just more and better evidence.
They have found water on Earth! (Score:2)
I suggest we send a rover to check for signs of life immediately.
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God did it (Score:1)
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Bad plan, everyone knows I won't care about watering my lawn post-rapture. Not that there is ever going to be a rapture, or is even mentioned in the Bible rapturists claim to follow.
why did they need a diamond to prove this? (Score:2)
I thought underground water being stored in molten rock material was already proved during russia's borehole experiment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K... [wikipedia.org]
"To scientists, one of the more fascinating findings to emerge from this well is that no transition from granite to basalt was found at the depth of about 7 km, where the velocity of seismic waves has a discontinuity. Instead the change in the seismic wave velocity is caused by a metamorphic transition in the granite rock. In addition, the rock at that dept
Origins of oil? (Score:2)