In recent study a long standing scientific assumption was challenged; scientists now believe that the earth has the ability to create water deep below ground in the mantle.
Up to this point modern science has worked under the assumption that water was extraterrestrial in origin, and traveled here on comets and icy meteors.
John Tse is a researcher at The University of Saskatchewan in Canada, and he recently spoke about the findings in their computer simulation of this amazing phenomena.
In the mantle of the earth, between 40 and 400 meters down scientists now think that silica reacts with liquid hydrogen to produce liquid water and silicon hydride.
This reaction takes place under incredible pressure and at high heat, about 1400 degrees C and 20,000 ATM. The water then forms inside of quartz crystals, and the pressure continues to build, sometimes reaching 200,000 ATM before exploding, and perhaps causing previously unexplained earthquakes.
And while this was a theoretical model, it drew on previous laboratory research that was done in Japan, where the reaction was successfully modeled physically.
This is an amazing discovery, and serves not only to give a realistic explanation for earthquakes deep in the mantle, but also it shows that our hypothesis concerning the extraterrestrial origins may very well be incomplete.
John Ludden, the Head of the British Geological Survey was not willing to give up on “space water” thesis just yet, and struck a more conciliatory tone saying that it is reasonable to assume that some water did in fact come from outer space, and was also perhaps produced by the earth as well.
Lydia Hallis at the University of Glasgow commented on this discovery by noting that it was surprising that the hydrogen did not in fact bond with the quartz crystal, instead bonding with the available oxygen, and disrupting the quartz structure. She also mentioned that the earth may be “wet” all the way down to its core. Simply amazing.
Regardless of the ongoing debate as to the origins of water on this planet, this study shows that while we do have a firm grasp of our universe, more inquiry is still needed and there is just so much we still do not know.
