A massive ocean has been discovered beneath the Earth’s crust which surprisingly contains more water than all the surface oceans combined.
As per multiple outlets, a large reservoir of water, stored in a rock called “ringwoodite” has been found 400 miles below the Earth’s surface.
Scientists had earlier discovered that water is stored within mantle rock in a sponge-like form, which is neither a liquid, solid or gas, but a fourth state of matter.
These findings were outlined in the 2014 scientific paper titled “Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle.”
Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen said in a statement at the time, "The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water, there is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water.”
He added, “This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle,” added Jacobsen, who was part of the team behind the discovery.”
The statement further added, "I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet. Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.”
Scientists made the discovery by analyzing earthquakes and noticing that seismometers were picking up shockwaves beneath the Earth’s surface.
Based on this, they concluded that water was stored in the rock called ringwoodite.
If the rock contains just 1 percent water, it would mean that there is three times more water beneath the Earth’s surface than in all oceans on the surface.
