Current Event #1

Maria Louka                                                                                                             3/14/14

Earth Science                                                                                               C Block Mrs. McClellan

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26553115

Redfern, Simon. "Mineral Hints at Bright Blue Rocks Deep in the Earth." BBC News. N.p., 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26553115>.

            Kimberlites are a type of volcanic rock, which erupt and then bring up to the Earth’s surface diamonds. Professor Graham Pearson, from the University of Alberta, was recently studying a type of diamond that had erupted from a 100-million-year-old kimberlite. This diamond was found in Juina, Brazil, and is thought to be very rare. Soon after beginning to research this diamond, Pearson and his team found that the diamond contained ringwoodite. Ringwoodite is a type of mineral that forms only under 410 to 600 kilometers under the Earth’s surface. This helped scientists come to the understanding of “how deep” some diamonds come from (how far down the Earth they are). One very interesting thing the scientists found about the ringwoodite is that it contains 1% water. But if this ringwoodite is so far down and it makes up a big part of the “deep Earth,” that means that the “deep Earth,” is covered in lots of water. The Earth’s interior is then very wet. Water is present at the lithosphere and goes through the upper mantle all the way down to where these diamonds are found. A lot of this ringwoodite is found in a place called the “transition zone,” right before the lower mantle and under the upper mantle. This is where the ringwoodite is believed to be and this area is believed to be filled with water or practically a “huge ocean.” This discovery of the ringwoodite is a very big step for us because it is the first evidence that water could be stored in the deep interiors of planets. This has been an ongoing controversy for about 25 years now (whether the deep Earth is wet or dry). Professor Joseph Smyth has been studying ringwoodite for many years and he says about this discovery that it “implies that hydrogen may control the interior processes of the Earth just as it controls the surface processes.” In addition it suggests that there may be more water planets in our galaxy because ringwoodite is also found in meteorites. Meteorites are from space so there may be more ringwoodite in space on various planets (they believe that Mars has ringwoodite).

            This ringwoodite really fascinates me and I think it is so cool how there is so much water deep in the Earth that we barely even knew about. This idea of whether the deep interior of the Earth is wet or dry has been an idea of debate for many years now. But finally the idea of the debate has been solved. This helps show us that there is lots of water deep down in the “deep Earth,” showing us how much water there really is on Earth (more than we ever thought) and this could potentially help solve water problems we have (droughts) one day. This discovery helps us to come to all new conclusions about science and what the “center of the earth” might really look like. Earth is primarily considered a water planet because the Earth’s surface is made up of 70% water. Ringwoodite in many cases is found in meteorites. This shows us that there may be many more “water planets,” in our galaxy. Meteorites originate in space. If ringwoodite is all over space that means that water is all over space. This is one step to us learning about if planets are habitable and if one-day humans could live on them or if there are any living creatures on these planets. If there is ringwoodite on planets that means that there is water on these planets (most likely). Scientists think that there may have been plate tectonics on various planets that caused this ringwoodite to go deep into the interior of these planets. If the ringwoodite was so far down into our Earth because of plate tectonics that forced it to go so deep, then there may be lots of ringwoodite on other planets that is just concealed as of now. It took a long time for them to recover this ringwoodite from the diamonds in Earth, so it will most likely take astronomers and various scientists a long time to discover the diamonds on another planet in our galaxy. Scientists believe that there is ringwoodite on Mars as well.

            I think this article was well written, but there are a few criticisms I would have to make. First off, the author talks about how ringwoodite contains water and this suggests that there may be water all over space, but does not elaborate much on this. I viewed other articles on this ringwoodite and they elaborate more on the galaxy side of ringwoodite and what it could mean. If the ringwoodite is in various planets it could be a huge discovery for science. The main point about the article is how these minerals are deep in the Earth, but I think a little elaboration on the planet portion would have been better. In addition, the article doesn’t elaborate much on how this water could help our Earth. It talks about how it is deep down and it has a lot of water in it, but how could this help Earth and humans in the future? Another thing I would have liked the article to talk more about is what they are doing to try and recover more ringwoodite and what technologies they are working on to try and dig deeper into the Earth. This ringwoodite and its water could seriously help the world and imagine what else might be down there that could help us too.