Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia

National Geographic ^ | 2-27-2007 | Richard A Lovett

[blam]

Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia

Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News

February 27, 2007

A giant blob of water the size of the Arctic Ocean has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, scientists report.

Researchers found the underground "ocean" while scanning seismic waves as they passed through Earth's interior.

But nobody will be exploring this sea by submarine. The water is locked in moisture-containing rocks 400 to 800 miles (700 to 1,400 kilometers) beneath the surface.

"I've gotten all sorts of emails asking if this is the water that burst out in Noah's flood," said the leader of the research team, Michael Wysession of Washington University in St. Louis.

"It isn't an ocean. [The water] is a very low percentage [of the rock], probably less than 0.1 percent."

Given the region's size, however, that's enough to add up to a vast amount of water.

Earthquakes Reveal "Ocean"

Wysession and former graduate student Jesse Lawrence discovered the damp spot by observing how seismic waves from distant earthquakes pass through Earth's mantle.

The wet zone, which runs from Indonesia to the northern tip of Russia, showed up as an area of relatively weak rock, causing the seismic waves to lose strength much more rapidly than elsewhere (see map of Asia.)

[TASMANIANRED]

Guess they found the water table.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Fresh or salt water?

[Central Scrutiniser]

I've gotten all sorts of emails asking if this is the water that burst out in Noah's flood," said the leader of the research team, Michael Wysession of Washington University in St. Louis

Wow, just when you thought Americans couldn't be dumber about science....

[thackney]

I don't know what is.

That's okay, neither does Al Gore. It just hasn't slowed him down in proclaiming it.

[thackney]

if that wouldnt have happened gravity would crush him to a pretty small size

Nope, in the center gravity forces would be zero. You would have equal pull in all directions so you would be weightless.

[aft_lizard]

But getting there is a different story.

[Mr J]

Yes, suspended at the gravitational center of the earth, IMO.

[Mr J]

Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia

"It isn't an ocean."

How about those headline writers?

[Robert A Cook PE]

But remember the difference between "gravity" ( a force caused the difference in mass above you and below you) and "pressure" the squishing sense of being extruded into rocky crystals like diamonds by a force of 100,000 of tons per sq millimeter by all of the (very heavy) rocks above you.

So, yes, if you could get a protected hollow sphere into the exact center of gravity of the middle of the earth you might be weightless (except for the moon's and sun's pull) but you might have a problem opening the door of your sphere to get out ...

[NicknamedBob]

Let's hope the crafty Chinee don't try to tap into a new geothermal energy source.

The sudden release of pressure could be, in a word, cataclysmic.

"... the squishing sense of being extruded into rocky crystals like diamonds by a force of 100,000 of tons per sq millimeter ..."

Yeah, I hate when that happens. It can ruin your whole day.

[Experiment 6-2-6]

"In Xanadu did Kublai Khan

A stately pleasure dome decree,

Where Alph, the sacred river ran,

Down to a sunless sea..."

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

AHEM..

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

[Bernard Marx]

Hmmm, are you a person from Porlock?

You're right -- I was quoting from fallible memory. Now do you feel all better?

[Maverick68]

My Paw-Teener could have found it with his witching stick.

[Nachoman]

There is a giant hole underneath the U.S., but nobody has bothered to dig it up yet.

[SunkenCiv]

related:

Remains of an ancient ocean
by Paul Cooper
26 August 1999

Until 65 million years ago, a great ocean, the Tethys, separated India from Asia. There were no Himalayas and no Tibetan Plateau... A team led by Rob Van der Voo of the Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan has found signs of this ancient ocean deep beneath the Indian subcontinent... By reconstructing the paths taken by earthquake waves through the Earth, they have created a three-dimensional computer model of the interior of the Earth beneath India and the surrounding area.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks metmom for the ping.

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[ValerieTexas]

We have the big underground Permian Sea in west Texas.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The wet zone?

Insert your favorite joke here...

[SunkenCiv]

Plus, Texas has that great-lookin' redhead in Waco...

http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/PP/ryp2.html

[SunkenCiv]

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18857

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/19513