News Headline
Conductivity key to mapping water inside Earth
Source
Phys.org
Publication Date
2017-07-26
Hydrogen at elevated temperature creates high electrical conductivity in the Earth's mantle.New work by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) scientists shows the dispersal of water (incorporated as hydrogen in olivine, the most abundant mineral in the upper mantle), could account for high electrical conductivity seen in the asthenosphere (part of the upper mantle just below the lithosphere that is involved in plate tectonic movement). The research appears in Scientific Reports .