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Huge Reservoir Discovered Beneath Asia

anthemaniac writes "Seismic observations reveal a huge reservoir of water in Earth's mantle beneath Asia. It's actually rock saturated with water, but it's an ocean's worth of water ... as much as is in the whole Arctic Ocean. How did it get there? A slab of water-laden crust sank, and the water evaporated out when it was heated, and then it was trapped, the thinking goes. The discovery fits neatly with the region's heavy seismic activity and fits neatly with the idea that the planet's moving crustal plates are lubricated with water."

13 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. So THAT's where all the water went by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... after Noah's Flood! This proves the existence of God! Suck it, James Cameron!!!12!!

  2. be like the Earth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    the planet's moving crustal plates are lubricated with water.



    Be like the Earth: use water-based lubricants, kids.

  3. dammit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    There goes my astroglide tectonics theory! Back to the drawing board...

  4. I get the same thing once in a while.... by blankoboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    but a tall glass of Prune juice always gets that trapped "slab of water-laden crust" out just fine.

  5. Venus by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The discovery fits neatly with the region's heavy seismic activity and fits neatly with the idea that the planet's moving crustal plates are lubricated with water."

    This may explain why Venus, a planet of similar size, appears to have a very different resurfacing mechanism. Venus's surface appears to "explode" once roughly every half-a-billion years, and then stay mellow until the next cycle. Thus, pressure probably builds up until a giant venusquake is eminant and kabam! Water on Earth appearently provides some lubrication such that the pressure is releived relatively gradually in comparison.

    1. Re:Venus by ZorbaTHut · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From the linked article:
      Scientists have very few answers, but they do know that the impact of a Yellowstone eruption is terrifying to comprehend. Huge areas of the USA would be destroyed, the US economy would probably collapse, and thousands might die.

      Thousands . . . might? In that situation I'd say "hundreds of thousands will" is far, far more likely.

      They're either hilariously overexaggerating the first part or hilariously underexaggerating the second.

      --
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  6. Usefulness? by RealGrouchy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So TFA states that there is good chance of there being lots of water beneath the crust in Asia. Okay, so that's water cooler (whoops...no pun intended) material.

    What would make it truly interesting (to non-seismologists) would be if that water were fresh (i.e. drinkable) and accessible (so it could be used as a drinking water supply).

    - RG>

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  7. Re:So THAT's where the flood water CAME FROM by rjamestaylor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Genesis 7:11-12
    In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.

    I see your snarky comment and raise it one Interesting one.
    --
    -- @rjamestaylor on Ello
  8. Re:So THAT's where the flood water CAME FROM by Brad1138 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The vast majority of sea life is VERY sensitive to the salinity of the water they live in. The sudden addition of fresh water would dilute the salt water to about 1/7 or 1/8 and would have either directly or indirectly killed all sea-life, completely destroying the only ecosystem left.

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  9. Re:Combine that with the recent minerals by Shihar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the only thing you need to kick ass was mineral wealth, Japan should have just thrown themselves upon a sword and given up from day 1. Japan has absolutely no mineral wealth, nor does Hong Kong. Taiwan is pretty sparse in mineral wealth as well. Plenty of African nations are up to their necks in valuable things you can dig out of the ground.

    Mineral wealth is nice, but it is hardly a deal maker. China has some serious, crippling problems that is going to keep it from being the magical fairy tail land that people hope for. The demographic imbalances of China in the male to female ratio are horrifying and an invitation to civil strife. China's bureaucracy is corrupt and crippling to industry. China is very lucky it has 1.2 billion people running around it, because unlike the US, China's xenophobia does a handy job preventing it from doing a world wide brain drain as the US is so notorious for. China's government has its hands so far up the ass of its own economy that one incompetent move on the government could spell disaster for the entire nation's economy. We saw and example of this yesterday when the Chinese stock market dumped 10% of its value on a rumor that the government was about to do something dumb.

    China has some very sever problems. True, China is a big growth engine right now, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that China was so desperately poor in the past. The Chinese government has done some things right in opening up their markets. They have also managed to keep law and order (which set them well ahead of most of Africa) which counts for a lot. That said, China has some very sever organizational problems with their government. Unless China commits to a real restructuring of their government, I really don't fear all that much for the US position of #1 in the world economy.

  10. Re:So THAT's where the flood water CAME FROM by b0r1s · · Score: 5, Informative

    The volume in the article doesnt match your math, but you're basically correct. Most natural sea water has a specific gravity of about 1.024-1.025. You can drop it as low as 1.009 without any real damage to fish, but invertebrates die pretty quickly if you do that (great way to treat saltwater fish for parasites, the lower SG of freshwater causes osmotic shock and they die).

    --
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  11. Re:So THAT's where the flood water CAME FROM by Phroggy · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more."
    Proverbs 31:6-7 (NIV)

    I defy anyone to find a better passage to take out of context.

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    $x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
  12. Re:So THAT's where the flood water CAME FROM by codeButcher · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's interesting is that that passage uses the Hebrew word "eretz", which gets translated as "earth" in all (English) translations I've seen. Now, "earth" in itself is a very generic term, and does not NECESSARILY mean "the planet Earth". And "eretz" could also be translated as "land", "country", "ground" etc.

    So the choice is up to the translator, and if you have 2 millennia's worth of tradition (which was based on incomplete knowledge), it is quite hard to break free of the mould.

    It is certainly possible that the Noah flood was a localized event, without invalidating the Scriptures (as seen in the original language).

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