Water seeps from the Earth’s surface into the Earth’s core and forms a strange new layer

It seems that the origin of the layer near the core has finally been revealed.

We live on a rocky planet in the solar system, and beneath the surface on which we normally walk, we can find different things Layers Which form Planet structureIt hides everything from fossils of the ancient organisms that inhabited it, to the hardest minerals and materials found in nature. However, little was known about A Layer close to the heart From the planet. At least for now.

Origin of class E

An international team of researchers has published an article in a journal Journal of Natural Earth Sciences Where they reveal how Surface of the water The Earth can not only penetrate the first layers of the crust; Reaching the depths Never imagined before.

In fact, a few decades ago, A A team of seismologists I was able to identify a thin layer located around the Earth’s core that is a few hundred kilometers thick and is known as… E layerBut to what? They could not provide an explanation Its existence.

A hydrogen-rich layer in the upper outer core originates from deep subductionhttps://t.co/WUueiZJN31 pic.twitter.com/ZjRHhxCZCg

– IGEO (CSIC-UCM) (@IGeociencias) November 22, 2023

Now is the time when both concepts come together to tell us The history of this layer E. Current research indicates that water comes billions of years Leak To the depths of the planet, until reaching the so-called Core boundaries mantleIt is located at a depth of about 2,900 kilometers below the planet’s surface.

he waterWhen it reaches the outer nucleus, It interacts with the elements that are there It forms a layer whose composition or origin no one has yet been able to know. It looks like this class Rich in hydrogen and siliconAs researchers discovered after conducting a series of high-pressure experiments to try to replicate the conditions inside the planet.

Did you know that the radius of the Earth is 6,371 km?
It is divided into crust, mantle and core.
The peel is so thin compared to the rest of the layers, that if we compare it to an apple, it barely represents the skin. pic.twitter.com/hdC2O13KYA

– IGEO (CSIC-UCM) (@IGeociencias) December 1, 2023

And that’s not all. It also appears that the interaction of water with the elements causes The appearance of silica crystalsWhich grows and reaches the mantle. This discovery, in addition to being interesting from the point of view of the Earth’s internal processes, also opens our eyes to the water cycle, which can be More comprehensive Than we can think so far.

Dan Shimscientist at Arizona State University, Talk about it Of this exceptional Discovery In an article published in The university’s website:

For years, the exchange of material between the Earth’s core and mantle was thought to be small. Our recent high-pressure experiments reveal a different story. We found that when water reaches the boundary between the core and mantle, it reacts with the silicon in the core, forming silica. This discovery, combined with our previous observations of diamond formation from the reaction of water with carbon in molten iron under extreme pressure, points to a more dynamic interaction between the core and mantle, suggesting that significant material exchange is occurring.