Posted on 01/28/2014 12:16:28 PM PST by Theoria
Scientists at the University of Liverpool have shown that deep sea fault zones could transport much larger amounts of water from the Earth’s oceans to the upper mantle than previously thought.
Water is carried mantle by deep sea fault zones which penetrate the oceanic plate as it bends into the subduction zone. Subduction, where an oceanic tectonic plate is forced beneath another plate, causes large earthquakes such as the recent Tohoku earthquake, as well as many earthquakes that occur hundreds of kilometers below the Earth’s surface.
Seismic modelling
Seismologists at Liverpool have estimated that over the age of the Earth, the Japan subduction zone alone could transport the equivalent of up to three and a half times the water of all the Earth’s oceans to its mantle.
Using seismic modelling techniques the researchers analysed earthquakes which occurred more than 100 km below the Earth’s surface in the Wadati-Benioff zone, a plane of Earthquakes that occur in the oceanic plate as it sinks deep into the mantle.
Summary of subduction zone structure inferred for waveform modelling of dispersed P-wave arrivals (Garth & Rietbrock, Geology, 2014)
Analysis of the seismic waves from these earthquakes shows that they occurred on 1 – 2 km wide fault zones with low seismic velocities. Seismic waves travel slower in these fault zones than in the rest of the subducting plate because the sea water that percolated through the faults reacted with the oceanic rocks to form serpentinite – a mineral that contains water.
Some of the water carried to the mantle by these hydrated fault zones is released as the tectonic plate heats up. This water causes the mantle material to melt, causing volcanoes above the subduction zone such as those that form the Pacific ‘ring of fire’. Some water is transported deeper into the mantle, and is stored in the deep Earth.
“It has been known for a long time that subducting plates carry oceanic water to the mantle,” said Tom Garth, a PhD student in the Earthquake Seismology research group led by Professor Andreas Rietbrock.
“This water causes melting in the mantle, which leads to arc releasing some of the water back into the atmosphere. Part of the subducted water however is carried deeper into the mantle and may be stored there.
Large amounts of water deep in the Earth
“We found that fault zones that form in the deep oceanic trench offshore Northern Japan persist to depths of up to 150 km. These hydrated fault zones can carry large amounts of water, suggesting that subduction zones carry much more water from the ocean down to the mantle than has previously been suggested.
“This supports the theory that there are large amounts of water stored deep in the Earth.”
Understanding how much water is delivered to the mantle contributes to knowledge of how the mantle convects, and how it melts, which helps to understand how plate tectonics began, and how the continental crust was formed.
The research is published in Geology.
great article...though the Bible beat the scientists to the punch with Noah.
Genesis 7:11 - “the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened”
Gensis 8:2 - “The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped”
ping
The question against a world wide flood is “where did all the water come from and where did it go?”:
“the Japan subduction zone alone could transport the equivalent of up to three and a half times the water of all the Earth’s oceans to its mantle.”
Many have puzzled over that, since the volume of water in the oceans wouldn't seem to be sufficient to cover earth's present mountain ranges. But if they volume of water within earth and under the oceans is actually 3 or 4 times greater than the water on the surface, and if the mountains originally were not so high, but were pushed higher by tectonic forces---
I don't know.
Aside from the biblical references, the surprising thing about this study is its failure to tie this to global warming. I am used to every study being tied to global warming in some fashion.
A period of global glaciation (ice ball earth) some 650 + mya preceded the Cambrian explosion of multicellular life. That was a lot of water, it had to go somewhere. However, mineral formation and volcanic activity over subduction zones and ridges take up a lot of water. For instance, the Great African Rift, has, in addition to numerous active volcanos, an immense magma chamber with 500 cubic miles of magma. Elsewhere, we are just beginning to discover things about tectonic plate push and pull and what immediately underlies the crust.
That's because
Thank you for referencing those Genesis verses.
Hot salt water has been extracted from beneath mountain ranges that are more or less between the trench that winds through the middle of each of the oceans.
I was thinking the same exact verses. Interesting as I’m going through a study guide specifically on Genesis, as well as Isaac Asimov’s book on the Old Testament.
That is not what Chapters 6, 7, and 8 had to say about the Flood. The Biblical account is consistent with the occurrence of a great regional flooding and tidal wave. A number of such great catastrophic events are known to have taken place in that part of the world in prehistoric and early historic times. In particular there were great floodings of the Mediterranean Basin, the Black Sea basin, and the Persian Gulf upwards through the Tigris-Euphrates river valleys, hills, and mountains.
Let’s see now - huge volumes of salt water being delivered to the earth’s mantle on tectonic conveyor belts - thus, H2O in contact with carbonaceous rock in extreme pressure and temperature conditions - endless inorganic methane, anyone? Nah, that’s loony stuff, that would mean that natural gas and crude oil were inexhaustable - and the Goron has already told us we’re running out of oil. Yawn
Unfortunately, you left off the most important part of the finding.
Over the age of the earth“the Japan subduction zone alone could transport the equivalent of up to three and a half times the water of all the Earth’s oceans to its mantle.”
"Over the age of the earth" is vastly different than "over a few months time" which is the length of the flood story in Noah's time.
Never forget that the global warming adherents think that an increase of 1" in sea level over a century is much too much for the earth.
So net water is being transported deep into the lower mantle sections over time.
How is it being replaced ?
Or perhaps more appropriately, when ?
the following (Gen 7:11) describes a very different environment than the one they are currently observing :
on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth,
Are we going back to a hollow earth again ?
Genesis 7:11...the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
In other words, the sources of the seawaters all of a sudden broke out and rose up as the sky poured forth torrents of rain.
It would have looked even worse for the people living in what is now the basin of the Black Sea, because the saltwaters of the Mediterranean Sea broke through the mountain passes above their heads at the Dardenelles Strait and poured down upon them as if the windows of heaven had been suddenly opened and the former lake flooded above everything they knew as their homes, hills, and mountains. The flooding would have naturally swept Noah’s Ark northeastwards to the mountains in the kingdom of Ararat.
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