Re:Massive 'ocean' discovered towards Earth's core
by throwaway_yy2Di on Thursday June 12, 2014 @10:08PM
(#7887127)
It makes perfect sense when you plug the numbers. They're talking about a thin layer of extremely dry, hot rocks in the earth's mantle. Something like 1-2% water by weight [0] in ringwoodite -- about 35-80 grams/liter. (Liquid water at the surface is >1,000 grams/liter). The catch is, it's a staggering volume: the earth's mantle is ~3,000 km thick, and the comparatively "thin" layer they're looking at, the transition zone, is ~250 km [1] -- this compared to the oceans' depth of ~4 km [2].
"The water storage capacity of the upper and lower
mantles is less than 0.2 wt%. The transition zone has a
storage capacity of approximately 0.5–1 wt% due to a
water solubility of about 1–3 wt% in wadsleyite and
ringwoodite, which are the major con- stituents of the
transition zone. Thus, the transition zone may be a
major water reservoir in the Earth’s interior."
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_zone_%28Earth%29
[2] https://xkcd.com/1040/