Deep beneath Earth's surface, there’s an enormous amount of water trapped inside a special blue mineral called ringwoodite in the mantle.

#science #sciencefactds #water #earth #mantle #ringwoodite

SciTech Chronicles. . . . . . . . .Mar 19th, 2025

https://bit.ly/stc031925

#Anchorage #CO2 #SO2 #magma #Nylon-6,6 #fermentation #Electrochemistry #Biorenewable #Bedmap3 #fast-warming #flow #sea-level #aquifers #Seismometers #uplift #subsidence #MTZ #subduction #ringwoodite #wadsleyite

@kipuka #géologie
Découverte du jour, la #ringwoodite

Minéral hydraté (1.4%) solide, obtenu à partir de l'olivine, roche très commune dans les profondeurs. Il se trouverait dans une couche de transition entre le manteau supérieur et inférieur. Il pourrait y avoir selon les calculs l'équivalent de 1 à 2 océans mondiaux !

"« Je pense que cet océan souterrain pourrait être la source d’un cycle d’eau profonde, qui est en fait crucial pour le fonctionnement de notre planète », estime le Dr. Gu"

Note (kipuka) "Il ne s'agit pas d'eau moléculaire(H2O) mais de groupes hydroxyles(OH) inclus dans la struc. minérale"

https://www.nationalgeographic.fr/sciences/les-profondeurs-de-la-terre-cachent-un-gigantesque-ocean-solide
https://aus.social/@ksircombe/113124205623708267

At high pressures, fluorine-free topaz is stable: Topaz-OH. It's likely present only on recent Earth in our solar system: water, aluminous sediments (shales; pelites) from continental crust and cold subduction zones are all required.

Given these, Topaz-OH can potentially transport water into the mantle transition zone (where it's stored in #ringwoodite ) Figure from Huang et al (2020).

#MinCup24 #Topaz #subduction #mantle #DeepWaterCycle

Okay so as much as I love #kyanite's variable mohs, #ringwoodite just sounds way cool right now. So I voted for the latter.

(This is a close vote btw! The difference is only 11 votes as of when I voted! Vote #ringwoodite for potential water sequestered!)

via @MineralCup

https://mastodon.social/@MineralCup/113122834755135909

Today's #MinCup24 duell is #Kyanite /#Disthen Vs. #Ringwoodite. I am for several reasons in #TeamKyanite. One is the famous phase diagram: kyanite, #sillimanite, #andalusite. It's so famous even my humans know it
#mineral #MinCup #CatsOfMastodon

Why study and synthesize #Ringwoodite? Experiments (below, a diamond anvil pressure device that's transparent to visible light; Schmandt et al, 2014) and natural samples from the Earth's mantle (see ksircombe's posts: https://aus.social/@ksircombe/113124213223248687) suggest that there's an ocean or two worth of water stored in Earth's Ringwoodite. It's likely kept the planet habitable for the last 4.5 billion years.

Plus Ringwoodite is more Blue than #Kyanite !
#MinCup24 #Mantle #PlateTectonics #BlueMinerals

We can make #Ringwoodite but measuring the pressure is hard. Yingwei Fei (CIW, Fei et al, 2004) pioneered combining the experiment with simple cubic crystals with well known volume changes with pressure. The volume of these cubic crystals is measured with synchrotron x-rays at the same time as the Ringwoodite is forming.
#MinCup24 #Synchrotron #Mantle

The Earth has a tremendous amount of #Ringwoodite, it's just difficult to get it to the surface unless encapsulated within another mineral. Making Ringwoodite big enough to see just requires a big press!
This is a 1500 ton press located at #Spring-8 in #Japan. It's bigger than it needs to be because it has a small gap in the WC anvils that allow synchrotron x-rays (intense, narrow beam) to penetrate the experiment, and because it's on actuators that position it to the micron.
#MinCup24 #Mantle

#Ringwoodite is a second chance for #Spinel (which lost out to #Vivianite earlier). Ringwoodite has the chemistry of olivine (Mg2SiO4) but the crystal structure of spinel (MgAl2O4).

#MinCup24 #Minerals #PhaseTransormation #Mantle

2/ #Ringwoodite is named for Ted Ringwood, a prominent Australian geochemist, who in the early 1960’s synthesised a dense spinel form from olivine and predicted a similar phase change deep in mantle which explains a structural transition seen in seismic waves passing through the Earth.

1/ Going for #Ringwoodite in today’s #MinCup24. It’s an interesting mineral – synthesised before discovery in nature, potentially responsible for harbouring most of the Earth’s water, and associated with safe storage of radioactive waste.

https://www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1m12

#MinCup24 R1M12: #Kyanite versus #Ringwoodite

It’s time to dig deep in the mantle for blue minerals: Kyanite and Ringwoodite.

Kyanite is beloved for its beauty, unique characteristics, and distinct formation story. Ringwoodite is a blue mineral formed in the high pressure and temperature.

VOTE: https://www.mineralcup.org/2024/vote/r1m12

Massive ocean discovered beneath the Earth's crust containing more water than on the surface | indy100
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/ocean-beneath-earth-crust-ringwoodite-2667637606

#Ocean
#Earth
#EarthsCrust
#Water
#Ringwoodite
#Geology

Massive ocean worth of water in rocks discovered beneath the Earth's crust containing more water than on the surface | indy100
https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/ocean-beneath-earth-crust-ringwoodite-2665131114

#Ocean
#BeneathEarthsCrust
#Ringwoodite

According to a new study, there may be a hidden ocean beneath the Earth’s crust. Researchers have found evidence of water trapped inside a mineral called ringwoodite, which forms deep in the mantle. This could mean more water is inside the planet than on its surface.

#geology #ocean #ringwoodite

https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/ocean-beneath-earth-crust-ringwoodite-2659973182