Water scarcity is one of the biggest issues at the present time as there are many countries in the world where people are facing this problem.
In an attempt to find more water resources, scientists and researchers of Northwestern University, Illinois (the USA) discovered a huge reservoir of water which is three times the size of water oceans combined present on the surface of the Earth.
This reservoir is 700 km beneath the surface of the Earth in a rock which is called ringwoodite. As per the researchers, the primary source of water on the surface of the planet is this blue rock, ringwoodite which has some unique qualities.
Steven Jacobsen, the researcher at the university who also happens to be the lead author of the study has written in the study paper that there is enough evidence that water on Earth’s surface come from the within. It is also written that ringwoodite is a like a sponge which soaks water and what makes the crystal structure of ringwoodite more special is the fact that it attracts hydrogen and traps water.
In order to uncover this huge reservoir, an array of 2000 seismographs across USA was used by the researchers and seismic waves from more than 500 earthquakes were analysed. These waves travel through the inner layers of the Earth including the core but they slow down whenever they pass through a wet rock which makes the scientist assume that there is presence of water deposit.
Let’s hope that this discovery will solve the problem of water scarcity all over the world.
