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Discovery of a Water Gem

by | 14-03-2014 01:30



An international group of diamond scientists have found the first terrestrial sample of a water-rich gem that yields new evidence about the existence of large volumes of water deep within Earth.


They have discovered the first-ever sample of a mineral called Ringwoodite. Analysis of the mineral shows that it contains a significant amount of water 1.5 per cent of its weight a finding that confirms scientific theories about vast volumes of water trapped 410 to 660 kilometers beneath Earth's surface, between the upper and lower mantle.

This sample really provides extremely strong confirmation that there are local wet spots deep in the Earth in this area. In fact that particular zone in the Earth, the transition zone, might have as much water as all the world's oceans put together.

Ringwoodite is a form of the mineral Peridot, believed to exist in large quantities under high pressures in the transition zone. Ringwoodite has been found in meteorites but, until now, no terrestrial sample has ever been unearthed because scientists haven't been able to conduct fieldwork at extreme depths.

This sample was found in the Juina area of, Brazil, where artisan miners unearthed the host diamond from shallow river gravels. 

Scientists have been deeply divided about the composition of the transition zone and whether it is full of water or desert-dry. Knowing water exists beneath the crust has implications for the study of volcanism and plate tectonics, affecting how rock melts, cools and shifts below the crust.

One of the reasons the Earth is such a dynamic planet is the presence of some water in its interior as water changes everything about the way a planet works. 

Let us all hope that many more such discoveries shall be coming our way in the near future as rays of hope in these times of environmental distress.