Wut: Massive “OCEAN” discovered towards Earth’s core.

Somewhat fittingly, Bateman and I were recently discussing how the Earth was first populated with water. In a state of inebriation, and probable complete incorrectness, I recalled a theory that the Earth was continuously pelted with comets from the Oort Cloud Kupier Belt. Even if I was recounting the theory correctly (and I’m sure I probably wasn’t), a new challenger to that probably-wrong theory has entered the arena!

A reservoir of water three times the volume of all the oceans has been discovered deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The finding could help explain where Earth’s seas came from.

The water is hidden inside a blue rock called ringwoodite that lies 700 kilometres underground in the mantle, the layer of hot rock between Earth’s surface and its core.

The huge size of the reservoir throws new light on the origin of Earth’s water. Some geologists think water arrived in comets as they struck the planet, but the new discovery supports an alternative idea that the oceans gradually oozed out of the interior of the early Earth.

“It’s good evidence the Earth’s water came from within,” says Steven Jacobsen of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The hidden water could also act as a buffer for the oceans on the surface, explaining why they have stayed the same size for millions of years. [Read more at New Scientist]