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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.

11 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.

  2. 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.

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
  3. 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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    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
  4. 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

  5. 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!

  6. 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!

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  7. 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.

  8. 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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    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  9. 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.

  10. 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.

  11. 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