Geoscientists found a diamond more than 2,100 feet beneath the earth's surface in Botswana, Africa. Based on the stone's analysis, it revealed that it contained a high volume of water.
Discovery of Diamond Confirms Theory of Earth's Water Cycle
A group of researchers from Goethe University examined a rare diamond created 660 meters below the Earth's surface using methods including FTIR spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy. The long-held belief that ocean water moves with subducting slabs and enters the transition zone was confirmed by the investigation. This implies that our planet's interior is a component of the water cycle.
The transition zone refers to the boundary layer that separates the Earth's upper mantle and the lower mantle. It is found between 410 and 660 kilometers under the surface. The olive-green mineral olivine, commonly known as peridot, which makes up around 70% of the Earth's upper mantle, changes its crystalline structure at the extreme pressure of up to 23,000 bar in the transition zone. At a depth of around 410 kilometers, at the upper edge of the transition zone, it changes into denser wadsleyite, and at a depth of 520 kilometers, it transforms into even denser ringwoodite.
According to Wikipedia, ringwoodite is a high-pressure phase of magnesium silicate that forms in the Earth's mantle between 525 and 660 kilometers deep at high temperatures and pressures. Iron and hydrogen are additional possible components.
According to Prof. Frank Brenker of Frankfurt's Goethe University's Institute for Geosciences, mineral changes significantly impede the mobility of rock in the mantle. Subducting plates frequently struggle to penetrate the entire transition zone.
Additionally, the subducting slabs also piggyback deep-sea sediments into the interior of the Earth. Large amounts of CO2 and water can be stored in these sediments. These sediments can hold large quantities of water and CO2. Prior to this study, published in Nature, scientists were unsure about the exact amount of water present in this region because of its density and static character.
ALSO READ: Warming Climate Threatens Arctic Ocean's Last Ice Area; Could Vanish by 2100 Along With Creatures That Rely on It
Jules Verne's Theory of Inside the Earth
The results of the analyses showed that the diamond had several water-rich ringwoodite inclusions. It was also discovered that it is almost identical to that of practically every piece of mantle rock discovered in basalts throughout the planet. This proved that the diamond undoubtedly came from a common element of the Earth's mantle.
According to Brenker, the transition zone holds a significant amount of water rather than acting like a dry sponge. He continued by saying that the study further advances Jules Verne's theory of an ocean inside the Earth. The difference is that there isn't an ocean down there; instead, there is hydrous rock, which doesn't feel or drip like water.
Hydrous ringwoodite was discovered in a diamond from the transition zone in 2014. However, due to the stone's small size, the researchers were unable to pinpoint its particular chemical makeup. It was also unclear how typical the initial study was of the mantle as a whole, as the diamond's water concentration might potentially have been a product of an unusual chemical environment. In contrast, the 1.5 cm diamond from Botswana that the research team examined in the current study has inclusions large enough to allow the specific chemical composition to be identified, providing full validation of the preliminary findings from 2014. Brenker was also part of the 2014 study.
RELATED ARTICLE: The World Without Oceans: What Does Our Fate Say?
Check out more news and information on Environment in Science Times.
