And apparently it was water that caused a mysterious layer to form around the Earth’s core. crystals are formed. This happens thanks to the reaction of the liquid with the metallic heart of our planet.

What you need to know about E-prime, a mysterious layer around the Earth’s core

In the 1990s, geologists discovered a thin layer surrounding the Earth’s outer core. a raging ocean of liquid metal. This layer was called E-prime (or E’); It is more than 100 kilometers wide, which is relatively small compared to other layers in the Earth’s interior. The layer is located approximately 2,900 kilometers below the Earth’s surface.

• Previously, scientists assumed that E was left behind by ancient iron-rich magma. Other theories suggested that the mantle flowed from the inner core or formed when the Earth collided with a protoplanet that gave birth to the Moon and left fragments inside the Earth. However none These ideas did not have wide recognition.
• In a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists found that E was likely created by water seeping from the Earth’s surface. plunge (subduction) of tectonic plates and reaction with the metal surface of the outer core.

If the new discovery is correct, E’ formed many crystals silica, it penetrated the mantle – a huge layer of magma between the outer core and the outer crust.

Water is constantly seeping through the crust into the depths of our planet / Image: ASU, Yonsei University

In the research, scientists carried out a series of laboratory experiments. reproduce how water can react with the outer core under intense pressure.

• They showed that hydrogen from water displaced and strained the silicon in the liquid metal. be pushed out of metal in crystal form.
• Therefore, E’ is probably a hydrogen-rich and silicon-poor layer of the outer core. contradicts presuppositions about its composition.

Researchers believe E is essential For more than 1 billion years, To achieve the current thickness. So it may be older than the inner core, which solidified about a billion years ago.

When water reaches the outer core, silica crystals are pushed out of the liquid metal / Image: Dan Shim, ASU

The new discovery is another indication that our current understanding of how the outer core and mantle interact with each other may be incomplete. For many years, it was believed that the exchange of matter between the Earth’s core and mantle was negligible. But new discoveries show that: much more dynamic interaction and important metabolism.