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New Evidence For Oceans of Water Deep In the Earth

techtech (2016646) writes Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico report evidence for potentially oceans worth of water deep beneath the United States. Though not in the familiar liquid form—the ingredients for water are bound up in rock deep in the Earth's mantle—the discovery may represent the planet's largest water reservoir. This research was published in Science.

23 of 190 comments (clear)

  1. Fraking! by riverat1 · · Score: 4, Funny

    This will be a new application for hydraulic fracturing to release the water from the rock.

    1. Re:Fraking! by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      It was a joke son.

    2. Re:Fraking! by riverat1 · · Score: 2

      That's me. I never bothered to memorize it. That's low enough to even impress me.

  2. Re:Yess!!! by BradMajors · · Score: 2

    How is water "irreplaceable"?

  3. Re:Water? by Jmc23 · · Score: 2

    The chemistry is weak in this one... as well as the reading comprehension.

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  4. Re:Water? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "This water is not in a form familiar to us—it is not liquid, ice or vapor. This fourth form is water trapped inside the molecular structure of the minerals in the mantle rock. The weight of 250 miles of solid rock creates such high pressure, along with temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, that a water molecule splits to form a hydroxyl radical (OH), which can be bound into a mineral's crystal structure."

  5. Seems to me by fustakrakich · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's still easier to get fresh water from the atmosphere. Since it falls down freely, we just have to harvest it. I mean, the deepest hole we've dug is what, five miles? Let's just wait for it to seep out, like the methane and oil do. Besides we are only using about one percent of the water we have on or above the surface. The "crisis" is in management, not supply.

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    1. Re:Seems to me by symbolset · · Score: 2

      This is going to shock you. There are places in the US where so much water falls from the sky that getting rid of the surplus is the bigger problem. Seattle for example.

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  6. Re:Old bible scolars by Jason+Levine · · Score: 2

    I think the "other explanation" is that a story is told, and then people try to fit elements of that story to new discoveries that are made. So the waters of the "Great Flood" vanished? And we discover an ocean's worth of water under North America. How is it obvious that those two are linked? Couldn't it also be true that the stories in the bible are parables meant to teach a lesson and not meant as a literal history lesson?

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  7. Re:Ingredients for water? by subreality · · Score: 2

    By RTFA I discovered that "This water is not in a form familiar to us—it is not liquid, ice or vapor. This fourth form is water trapped inside the molecular structure of the minerals in the mantle rock. The weight of 250 miles of solid rock creates such high pressure, along with temperatures above 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, that a water molecule splits to form a hydroxyl radical (OH), which can be bound into a mineral's crystal structure."

  8. Interesting implication for Mars by WindBourne · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seriously, this could be where a lot of Mar's water went. That is under Martian surface.

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  9. Re:Is there any info that isn't behind paywalls? by stoborrobots · · Score: 5, Informative

    This looks like the original press release: http://news.unm.edu/news/new-evidence-for-oceans-of-water-deep-in-the-earth

    Here's an explanation of what's going on.

    The paper is already used as a reference on the Wikipedia page for Ringwoodite.

    Here are the research pages of the various authors:

    Brandon Schmandt, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of New Mexico

    Steven D. "Steve" Jacobsen, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Northwestern University

    Thorsten W. Becker, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California

    Zhenxian Liu, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington

    Kenneth G. "Ken" Dueker, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Wyoming

  10. Not Sure by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mineral hydration? I guess even rocks love Brawndo. It's got electrolytes. That's what rocks crave!

  11. Water? by msauve · · Score: 4, Funny

    "a hydroxyl radical (OH), which can be bound into a mineral's crystal structure."

    Oceans of water? OH, no!

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  12. Re:Old bible scolars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What isn't "contrivocerial" is that you are an idiot.

    If you had an ounce of critical thinking skills (or had even bothered to read the article), you would realize that hydroxyl radicals pervasively bound up in mineral deposits that are hundreds of millions of years old in no way support the idea of an imaginary flood that allegedly occurred 6000 years ago before being written about by semi-ltierate Bronze Age goat herders.

    Go thump your bible elsewhere, and retake 3rd grade spelling while you are at it.

  13. Re:Yess!!! by Nyder · · Score: 2

    How is water "irreplaceable"?

    The Earth's mantle is probably not replaceable though...

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    Be seeing you...
  14. Re:Ingredients for water? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Water.

    You all keep using that word. I do not think that word means what you think it means.

    For all of you who think you can drill down and suck some of this out - it's several hundred KILOMETERS (that's a unit of measure, common in the rest of the world - think of it as something like half a mile) down. It's NOT liquid.

    You can't have it, no matter how much you want it.

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  15. Re:Noah's Ark Story by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    It's never been a very good argument, though. The flood was divine intervention. God could just click his fingers and magic the water into existence, and get rid of it in the same manner.

    For that matter he could have just clicked his fingers and made everyone drop dead, but God really loves to put on a big flashy show of things.

  16. Re:Water? by camperdave · · Score: 2

    Hydroxide is not water.

    It is if it is hydrogen hydroxide.

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  17. Re:Old bible scolars by Thanshin · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There you have it, folks, another tolerant Slashdot mind!

    You're absolutely right!

    People, please, when you're writing in Slashdot, try to make an effort to respect the opinions of retards and trolls.

  18. Re:Old bible scolars by Imrik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    To be fair, it's highly likely that the story is based in historical fact to begin with. While the whole world may not have flooded, there was most likely a large enough flood to be worth telling stories about. This would explain why the story of the single family surviving the flood has appeared in several different religions.

  19. Gypsum by BlackPignouf · · Score: 2

    How is it different than gypsum, CaSO4-2H2O?

  20. Re: Ingredients for water? by relisher · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, well if several hundred kilometers is just half a mile, I'm sure we'll have no difficulty reaching the mantle