Our planet Earth may have a sixth ocean, stuck 700 kilometers deep below the surface.
A groundbreaking discovery revealed that huge amounts of water are stored in a “sponge-like” form, which isn’t a liquid, solid, or gas but rather a fourth state.
This finding, published in the 2014 scientific paper “Dehydration melting at the top of the lower mantle,“ highlights how water is trapped in a rock called ringwoodite.
Ringwoodite Attracts Water Like Sponge
Geophysicist Steve Jacobsen observed that the rock functions exactly like a sponge, “soaking up water”.
The rock attracts hydrogen and water molecules as it has a unique unexplainable structure that makes it do so.
Unlike the water on Earth, the water found in ringwoodite is tolerant to heat and can withstand extreme temperatures, the researchers wrote.
It was estimated that if ringwoodite contains just 1% water, the volume of water beneath Earth’s surface could be three times greater than all the water in the oceans combined.
