Oceans could lie beneath earthquake zones according to a study in the online journal Geology Tech Times reported Tuesday.
Scientists discovered that the bodies of water shifted there via subduction or plate tectonics from the edge of a crystal plate goes lower than another according to a definition in the Merriam Webster online dictionary.
The shifts happened in areas one to two kilometers in width Science Recorder reported.
"This order-of-magnitude increase in the estimated H2O flux in this arc implies that over the age of the Earth, the equivalent of as many as 3.5 present-day oceans of water could be subducted along the Kuril and Izu-Bonin arcs alone," the research team said in a statement Tech Times reported. "These results offer the first direct measure of the lower lithosphere hydration at intermediate depths, and suggest that re-gassing of the mantle is more vigorous than has previously been proposed," the research team said in a statement.
Scientists utilized seismic modeling techniques or images portraying conditions that could happen in the event of an earthquake to collect and look at information about the natural causes that happen below the surface of the earth.
"This water causes melting in the mantle, which leads to arc releasing some of the water back into the atmosphere. Part of the subducted water however is carried deeper into the mantle and may be stored there," Dr. Tom Garth, a Ph. D earth science student working on the project told the Science Recorder. Dr. Andreas Rietbrock of the University of Liverpool's school of environmental sciences leads the project Science Recorder reported.
"These hydrated fault zones can carry large amounts of water, suggesting that subduction zones carry much more water from the ocean down to the mantle than has previously been suggested," Dr. Tom Garth, a Ph. D earth science student who is part of the project told Science Recorder.
