Earth’s Inner Core Could Contain Weird Superionic Water, Experts Say

Scientists have found a new state of matter called "superionic water," which may exist as a liquid, solid, or gas. This unusual ice is generally seen on the cores of Neptune and Uranus. However, experts have recently discovered it in the Earth's deep core.

Scientists rely on seismic waves to investigate the inner core because nobody can drill a well to the Earth's inner core to see what's truly there.

Researchers detailed their findings of the new study, "Superionic Iron Alloys and Their Seismic Velocities in Earth's Inner Core," in journal Nature.

Earth's Inner Core Is 'Superionic Water,' Study Suggests

Experts said a combination of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon is neither a solid nor a liquid. It is referred to as a "superionised" state, a different state of matter than solid, liquid, or gas with specific peculiarities.

The researchers discovered this by running computer simulations to see how seismic waves might travel through various combinations of components.

Scientists can recreate the activities deep within our globe by monitoring these massive vibrations.

Quantum mechanics theory was also used to explain how atoms and particles interact at the tiny level.

They can develop models that accurately replicate the core's tremendous pressures and temperatures.

Iron atoms are "solid," while carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen molecules generate a liquid-like substance.

It indicates that the alloys have transitioned to superionic water.

According to study lead author Yu He of the Chinese Academy of Science, the findings are unusual.

Yu He said in an Express.co.uk report that the solidification of iron at the inner core border has no effect on the mobility of these light elements, and light convection in the inner core has continued. The results may now totally alter our understanding of processes involving the Earth's inner core.

According to the authors, these include earthquakes, volcanism, and the Earth's magnetic field.

Why is the States of Matter Important

ABC.net.au said the three states of matter on Earth's surface are solid, liquid, and gas.

Take, for example, water. In a chilled drink, water molecules are organized in a regular, 3D crystal, similar to ice. When the ice melts into liquid water, the molecules can freely move around, yet they remain close together.

As a gas, the mobile water molecules are free to travel far apart from one other, just as the water vapor that gives humid days their suffocating stickiness.

However, when substances are exposed to extreme pressure or heat, they can transform into strange new states of matter.

Superionic matter, for example, is a hybrid of liquid and solid states.

Molecules in superionic water break into oxygen and hydrogen atoms.

The oxygen atoms form a 3D structure similar to a solid object, while the hydrogen atoms move around freely, as in a liquid state.

The mass of huge icy planets like Neptune and Uranus might be superionic water ice.

Some geophysicists believe that the Earth's very center, its inner core, is superionic as well.

However, the inner core is formed of a metal alloy, with largely iron, a little nickel, and a few other much lighter elements like hydrogen and carbon mixed together.

The iron atoms in a superionic state form the 3D "solid" structure, while the lighter elements flow around it like liquid.

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