Mineral hints at bright blue rocks deep in the Earth
Minerals preserved in diamond have revealed hints of bright blue rocks that
exist deep within the earth.
Diamonds are brought to Earth’s surface BY violent eruptions of deep volcanic
rocks called kimberlite . A research team led by Prof Graham Pearson of the
University of Alberta , Canada studied a diamond from a 100 million year old
kimberlite found in Juina , Brazil. They noticed that it contained a mineral ,
ringwoodite , that is only thought to form between 410 km and 660 km beneath the
Earth’s surface , showing just how deep some diamonds originate .
While ringwoodite had only been found previously in meteorites, this is the first
time a terrestrial ringwoodite has been seen. But to their surprise, the
researchers found that the mineral contained about 1% water.
Although this sounds like very little , because ringwoodite makes up almost all
of this immense portion of the deep Earth, it adds up to a huge amount of
underground water.