Scientists Discovered Huge ‘Ocean’ Hidden Underneath The Earth’s Surface

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It’s larger than all the seas above land.

If you take a look at a world map, you might assume that humans discovered all the seas and oceans on our planet quite some time ago.

However, just ten years ago, scientists uncovered an enormous ocean beneath the Earth’s surface, one that’s triple the size of all the surface seas combined.

Interestingly, this massive ocean was only discovered in 2014.

It’s hidden deep within the Earth’s crust.

What other secrets may our planet contain?Getty Stock Photo

If it weren’t tucked away down there, we’d likely be submerged underwater right now.

This hidden ocean is buried more than 400 miles beneath the surface, in the Earth’s mantle.

It’s stored within a blue rock called ‘ringwoodite’.

A publication, New Scientist, reported that this discovery has provided new insights into the origins of our planet’s water.

While some geologists previously thought water came from comets crashing into Earth, this new finding supports the theory that our oceans gradually seeped out from the planet’s interior.

Steve Jacobsen, a geophysicist who contributed to the discovery of this underground ocean, commented that this was ‘good evidence the Earth’s water came from within’.

He explained: “The ringwoodite is like a sponge, soaking up water.

“There is something very special about the crystal structure of ringwoodite that allows it to attract hydrogen and trap water.

“This mineral can contain a lot of water under conditions of the deep mantle.”

Jacobsen and his team discovered this ocean using 2,000 seismometers to analyze the waves caused by over 500 earthquakes.

He mentioned that these earthquakes ‘make the Earth ring like a bell for days’.

There’s a better ocean than this one but you wouldn’t know them, they go to a different layer of the Earth.Getty Stock Photo

They could identify the types of rocks the seismic waves traveled through by measuring the speed of these waves.

They noticed that the waves slowed down when passing through wet rock, and Jacobsen had predicted this slowdown would occur if the waves encountered water held within ringwoodite, which can hold up to 1.5 percent water.

Thanks to these observations, the team confirmed that the largest ocean on Earth is actually concealed beneath the surface.

At that time, Jacobsen stated: “I think we are finally seeing evidence for a whole-Earth water cycle, which may help explain the vast amount of liquid water on the surface of our habitable planet.

“Scientists have been looking for this missing deep water for decades.”

So, there it is—a vast ocean lies beneath us, and Jacobsen and his team are now investigating whether it extends around the entire Earth.

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