Technology News

Chemical reaction in landslide rocks may start wildfires
A new research has suggested that a chemical reaction in rocks in landslides may be responsible for starting wildfires. ANI

Now, a project to encourage visually-impaired pupils to take up computer science
The U.S. National Science Fioundation (NSF) is funding an initiative at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) that has been designed to help prepare visually impaired middle school and high school students participate in computer science programs at the collegiate level. ANI

New invention to neutralize hurricanes with help from supersonic jet
Scientists have put forward a patent application about developing a supersonic hurricane neutralizer, which can put a spanner in the atmospheric works by flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricanes eye, the calm area around which the storm rotates. ANI

New findings shed light on missing chemicals from earths mantle

New observations by geophysicists might shed light on the age-old mystery of missing chemicals from the Earths mantle.

Washington, Dec 6 : New observations by geophysicists might shed light on the age-old mystery of missing chemicals from the Earth's mantle.

The centre of Earth is a fiery core of melted heavy metals, mostly iron. This represents 30 per cent while the remaining 70 per cent is the outer mantle of solid rock.

Traditional views hold that a shallow ocean of melted rock (magma) existed 1,000 km below the Earth's surface, but it was short lived and gone by 10 million years after the formation of Earth.

In contrast, a new evolutionary model by John Hernlund, a UBC (University of British Columbia) geophysicist, predicts that during Earth's hotter past shortly after its formation 4.5 billion years ago, at least one-third of the mantle closest to the core was also melted.

"The partially molten patches now observed at the base of the Earth's mantle could be the remnants of such a deep magma ocean," said Hernlund.

"As the thick melted rock cooled and crystallized, the solids that resulted had a different composition than the melt," explains Hernlund. "The melt held onto some of the elements. This would be where the missing elements of chondrite are stored," he added.

"This layer of molten rock would have been around 1,000 km thick and 2,900 km beneath the surface," said Hernlund.

Hernlund's study explores the melting and crystallization processes that have controlled the composition of the Earth's interior over geological time.

ANI