This is #scaryDon't #Scientists watch #SciFi #movies? - Scientists Drilled So Deep Into the Center of the Earth, They Knocked on the #Mantle’s Door #Geologists https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-drilled-deep-center-earth-151100046.html

Weak Asthenosphere Beneath The Eurasian Interior Inferred From Aral Sea Desiccation
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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-025-01664-w <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #remotesensing #earthobservation #inSAR #AralSea #rebound #isostaticrebound #asthenosphere #geology #structuralgeology #mantle #crust #weight #rheology #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #continent #desiccation #loss #drying #water #hydrology #elastic #viscoelastic #model #modeling #uplift #lithosphere #humanimpacts #tectonic

Deep beneath Earth's surface, there’s an enormous amount of water trapped inside a special blue mineral called ringwoodite in the mantle.

Imagine parting the veils of clouds that obscure Venus, and seeing through the crustal basalts to understand the mantle beneath. This is the journey Julia Semprich (@planetju) took us on as the Mineralogical Society of America Distinguished Lecturer.

#Snails are primarily marine #mollusks. According to current hypotheses, the #sistergroup might be #Cephalopoda plus #Scaphopoda (Link below) . One #Apomorphy, i.e. evolutionary new acquisitions of the stemspecies, is the #asymmetrical #shell that is wound in one direction, which is due to a #torsion of the #mantle and visceral sac.
The species in my #photos is #Cornu #aspersum from Italy. #biodiversity,
© #StefanFWirth Berlin 2025

Reference

Sumner-Rooney et al. (2015):
https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fede.12164

How Did The Great Lakes Form? Scientists Think They Figured It Out
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https://www.earth.com/news/how-did-the-great-lakes-form-surprising-new-clues-have-emerged/#google_vignette <-- shared technical link
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https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL110777 <-- shared paper
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#geology #mapping #structuralgeology #USA #Canada #GreatLakes #NorthAmerica #CapeVerde #hotspot #tectonics #magma #Superior #Michigan #Huron #Erie #Ontario #freshwater #lake #mantle #formation #pangaea #supercontinent #remotesensing #geophysics #continent #kimberlites #seismicvelocitymodel #model #modeling #plume #lithosphere #glacial #glacier #anisotropy

Deep Beneath California's Sierra Nevada, Earth's Lithosphere May Be Peeling Away
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https://phys.org/news/2025-01-deep-beneath-california-sierra-nevada.html <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL111290 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #geology #lithosphere #California #SierraNevada #continentalcrust #crust #mantle #foundering #remotesensing #geophysics #geophysical #earthquake #spatialanalysis #spatiotemporal #structuralgeology #earthquake #seismic #seismology #Moho #platetectonics #tectonics #shearzone #faults #faulting #seismicity #model #modeling #3dmodel

Thermodynamic Model Identifies How Gold Reaches Earth's Surface
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https://phys.org/news/2024-12-thermodynamic-gold-earth-surface.html <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2404731121 <-- shared paper
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#geology #structuralgeology #mantle #crust #tectonics #platetectonics #gold #preciousmetals #subduction #mantle #crust #sulfur #RingOfFire #volcano #volcanics #magma #model #modeling #trisulfur #pressure #temperature #geochemistry #subductionzone #thermodynamics

These Revolutionary Maps Are Revealing Earth’s Geological Secrets
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https://www.zmescience.com/science/tectonic-model-beatiful-new/ <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104069 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #tomography #geology #remotesensing #structuralgeology #plates #platetectonics #earth #global #model #modeling #opendata #opensource #spatialdata #vector #platemodel #mechanics #GPS #earthquakes #volcanoes #topography #orogeny #tectonics #spatiotemporal #spatialanalysis #Pangea #Gondwana #Gondwanaland #ReuniteGondwanaland #Laurasia #lithosphere #crust #mantle #core #geophysics #geochemistry #geochronology #dating #Mesoproterozoic

Himalayas Formation May Have Destroyed At Least 30% Of Continental Crust In Collision Zone
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https://phys.org/news/2024-11-himalayas-formation-destroyed-continental-crust.html <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2024.119070 <-- shared paper
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#geology #structuralgeology #model #modeling #numericmodeling #geochemistry #mountainbuilding #orogeny #Himalayas #continentalcrust #platetectonics #continents #EuropeanAlps #ZagrosMountains #mantle #subsumed #deformation #erosion #thickening #extrusion #massbalance #calculations #delamination #topography #lithosphere

A thick section in both transmitted light (crossed polarizers) & reflected light. It shows the results of an experiment at mantle conditions to equilibrate the microstructure of olivine grains (colorful) and iron-nickel-sulfur melt (bronze colored, unmixed on solidification). The sulfide melt largely forms pockets at grain corners, and does not interconnect along grain edges. This melt can not easily separate from the silicate.
#ThinSectionThursday #Mantle #ExperimentalPetrology #CoreFormation

Mysterious 165-Million-Year-Old Minerals Found On Easter Island Defy Plate Tectonics
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https://scitechdaily.com/mysterious-165-million-year-old-minerals-found-on-easter-island-defy-plate-tectonics/ <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.22541/au.170129661.17646127/v1 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #geology #structuralgeology #platetectonics #EasterIsland #RapaNui #oceanic #plate #volcanic #vulcanism #mineralogy #magma #dating #timing #plume #RingOfFire #mantle #mechanics #model #modeling

Ancient Sunken Seafloor Reveals Earth’s Deep Secrets – A Mysterious Subduction Zone Deep Beneath The Pacific Ocean, Reshaping Our Understanding Of Earth’s Interior
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https://cmns.umd.edu/news-events/news/nicholas-schmerr-vedran-lekic-ancient-sunken-seafloor-reveals-earths-deep-secrets <-- shared technical article
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https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado1219 <-- shared paper
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#GIS #spatial #mapping #geology #structuralgeology #seafloor #geologichistory #EastPacificRise #remotesensing #seismic #seismology #mantle #crust #subduction #tectonicplates #model #modeling #LLSVP #imaging #mantletransition #Pacific #PacificOcean #SouthAmerica #research

knott's berry farm, california
august 1958

portrait studio

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/51839562682
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dboo/2237356444/

part of an archival project, featuring the photographs of nick dewolf

© the Nick DeWolf Foundation
Image-use requests are welcome via nickdewolfphotoarchive [at] gmail [dot] com

At high pressures, fluorine-free topaz is stable: Topaz-OH. It's likely present only on recent Earth in our solar system: water, aluminous sediments (shales; pelites) from continental crust and cold subduction zones are all required.

Given these, Topaz-OH can potentially transport water into the mantle transition zone (where it's stored in #ringwoodite ) Figure from Huang et al (2020).

Why study and synthesize #Ringwoodite? Experiments (below, a diamond anvil pressure device that's transparent to visible light; Schmandt et al, 2014) and natural samples from the Earth's mantle (see ksircombe's posts: https://aus.social/@ksircombe/113124213223248687) suggest that there's an ocean or two worth of water stored in Earth's Ringwoodite. It's likely kept the planet habitable for the last 4.5 billion years.

Plus Ringwoodite is more Blue than #Kyanite !
#MinCup24 #Mantle #PlateTectonics #BlueMinerals

We can make #Ringwoodite but measuring the pressure is hard. Yingwei Fei (CIW, Fei et al, 2004) pioneered combining the experiment with simple cubic crystals with well known volume changes with pressure. The volume of these cubic crystals is measured with synchrotron x-rays at the same time as the Ringwoodite is forming.
#MinCup24 #Synchrotron #Mantle

The Earth has a tremendous amount of #Ringwoodite, it's just difficult to get it to the surface unless encapsulated within another mineral. Making Ringwoodite big enough to see just requires a big press!
This is a 1500 ton press located at #Spring-8 in #Japan. It's bigger than it needs to be because it has a small gap in the WC anvils that allow synchrotron x-rays (intense, narrow beam) to penetrate the experiment, and because it's on actuators that position it to the micron.
#MinCup24 #Mantle