Australian National University | 2017 Feb 28
A new study led by The Australian National University (ANU) has found seawater cycles throughout the Earth’s interior down to 2,900km, much deeper than previously thought, reopening questions about how the atmosphere and oceans formed.
A popular theory is that the atmosphere and oceans formed by releasing water and gases from the Earth’s mantle through volcanic activity during the planet’s first 100 million years.
But lead researcher Dr Mark Kendrick from ANU said the new study provided evidence to question this theory.
“Our findings make alternative theories for the origin of the atmosphere and oceans equally plausible, such as icy comets or meteorites bringing water to the Earth,” said Dr Kendrick from the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences. ...
Seawater cycled throughout Earth’s mantle in partially serpentinized lithosphere - M. A. Kendrick et al
- Nature Geoscience (online 27 Feb 2017) DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2902