mantle

Flawed, Precious Stones Carry Clues From Deep in the Mantle

Earth’s oxygen-rich atmosphere creates extremely oxidizing conditions at the surface. Anyone who has seen rusty metal has observed oxidation in action: the oxygen steals electrons from the metal, creating crusty, red, iron oxide. Within Earth’s core, however, low levels of oxygen create much more reduced conditions. Intuitively, many researchers have supposed that Earth’s layers become less oxidized with depth, but few samples have emerged from the deep Earth to support or disprove this idea.

Content tagged with “mantle”Showing 1-10 of 111 results
Atlantis Massif Drillsites
Subsurface Life in the Atlantis Massif: Just Add Water? 17 October 2018 Feature

When mantle rocks come into contact with seawater, the resulting reaction, called serpentinization…

Did a Burst of Halogens Kick Off the End-Permian Extinction? 27 August 2018 Feature

About 250 million years ago, one of the largest known volcanic events in history flooded the area…

Earth rasterized
Carbon Dioxide Stays Solid Under Deep Mantle Conditions 8 August 2018 Feature

On the surface, carbon dioxide moves in complex cycles between living organisms and the physical…

blue boron-bearing diamond
Origin of Blue Diamonds Discovered 1 August 2018 Feature

Experts judge a diamond’s worth by the four Cs, “color, clarity, cut, and carat weight,” and blue…

MORB
Degassing from Mid-Ocean Ridges Refuses to Follow the Rules of Equilibrium 12 June 2018 Feature

A big part of understanding how much carbon Earth holds beneath its surface relies on measuring how…

Pyroxenites
Pyroxenites Put the Brakes on Mantle Melting 29 May 2018 Feature

Pyroxenites are a type of rock created when parts of Earth’s crust are injected deep in the mantle…

A Deep Dive Into the Carbon-Hydrogen Cycle 20 March 2018 Feature

DCO Extreme Physics and Chemistry Community member Eglantine Boulard with Deep Life Community…

Earth’s Core-Mantle Boundary May Be Decorated in Marble and Diamonds 19 March 2018 Feature

A new study published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters [1] finds that carbonates…

Cullinan
Super-Deep Diamond Holds First Glimpse of Long-Expected Mantle Mineral 8 March 2018 Feature

The recent discovery of an unusual inclusion in a rare, super-deep diamond means that calcium…

VIDEO: A Search for Magmatic Carbon Dioxide Degassing in the Afar Rift 22 February 2018 Feature

The team, led by Raphael Pik and Bernard Marty of the CNRS at the University of Lorraine, France,…

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