Inside the Earth, there is a thin layer immediately surrounding the molten metal in the outer core. Its origins have been unknown for decades, but researchers now believe it’s here. It is the surface water that caused this differentiation in the first place. This is difficult to explain by assuming that the concentration of a single element falls there, but could be explained if a wide range of chemical reactions were occurring.
No water will drip from the plug hole for thousands of miles. It is carried by the descending plates, making a journey of 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) before finally reaching the core. This process occurs slowly, but over billions of years, water from the surface has altered the edge between the bottom of the mantle and the top of the core.
The hydrogen-rich silicate-depleted layer is about several hundred kilometers thick and essentially membranous, given the core’s 6,970 kilometers (4,330 miles) diameter. In a water alteration scenario, this altered liquid metal layer eventually reacts to form silica crystals that migrate into the mantle. Also, the lower the seismic velocity, the less dense the layer is expected to be, as measured by geologists.
“For many years it was thought that the exchange of matter between the Earth’s core and mantle was small. But our recent high-pressure experiments revealed a different picture. We believe that water “We found that when they reach the core-mantle boundary, they react with silicon in the core to form silica,” co-author Dr. Dan Sim of Arizona State University said in the paper. statement.
“This discovery, together with previous observations that diamonds form when water reacts with carbon in iron liquids under extreme pressures, points to a much more dynamic core-mantle interaction. It suggests a substantial material exchange.”
There is much we don’t know about the depths of our planet. More accurate seismic data collected from large and small earthquakes and better simulations are revealing new details of the Earth’s interior.
More recently, researchers found evidence that the collision of planets that formed the moon left behind two regions around its core.
A paper describing this scenario was published in a journal natural earth science.