Scientists Found the Sixth Ocean on Earth

0:00Um, are you stuck staring at your W2? Our tax refund worry is holding you back. You probably have FOMO. The fear of messing up. The FIX? Using turbo tax on into a credit karma, they find every credit and deduction to help you get every refund dollar you deserve, or your money back. It's time to overcome your fear of messing up and get your taxes done right. We're filing today in the Credit Karma Act. Our planet has five oceans, the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, and Arctic. Not counting Billy Ocean. But it seems there's a six one out there too. It's just that you can't see it. Scientists have found evidence of large amounts of water hidden in the transition zone. That's the boundary layer that separates the upper and lower mantle of our planet. The boundary goes hundreds of miles deep down below the surface. Natural diamonds usually form in the mantle, but at depths of up to 155 miles.

1:04Some of them are very rare. They may come from deeper depths. That was the case with this fascinating diamond that formed 410 miles below the surface. The gem was big enough for scientists to study it and determine what it was made of. They were surprised when the composition of this very rare diamond showed that it was formed in pretty watery conditions. Because of that, such a diamond wouldn't be worth much in jewelry stores, but it was priceless in the lab. So could this mean there's an ocean under the surface of our planet? It would definitely get us closer to the idea Jules Verne had about this whole magical secret world inside Earth, including the ocean. But that's not exactly the case. The water is there, true, but it's not like you can enjoy the view watching waves splashing around like on the surface of our planet. The water is actually stored within the minerals. That's why this area is so wet. Let's now move to Africa to keep up with the story, or to be more specific to a spot called

2:08the Afar region. It's part of Ethiopia and a place where three tectonic plates meet. The plates are large pieces of our planet's crust that slowly move. These movements cost earthquakes and produce volcanoes, mountains, deep underwater valleys we call trenches and so on. And the Afar Valley is where the Arabian, Somali, and Nubian plates meet. Together they form an intersection in the shape of a Y. Why? Let me tell you. These plates are moving all the time. The Somali plate is moving southeast toward the Australian and Indian plates. The Arabian plate is moving north, getting closer to the Eurasian plate. At some point it will close the Persian Gulf. This movement of plates has created something we call the Great Rift Valley. Considering there are, you know, all these cool rifts, the Aiden Ridge to the east, the Red Sea Rift to the west, the Oculus Rift and the East African Rift to the south.

3:10The East African Rift is something we want to focus on because this one could be the key to this potential sixth ocean, but this time on the surface. A continental rift is a spot where two tectonic plates that form a single continent start to separate. Here it's the Somali and Nubian plates. Together there are parts that make up Africa. If they keep moving in separate directions, this currently continental rift may become what we call an oceanic spreading ridge. In other words, when the plates are far enough apart from each other, there will be an enormous crack between them. This way magma will freely flow up from beneath them. It'll be cool and eventually start creating a new ocean floor. Africa will be split into two parts and there will be a new ocean flowing between what will turn into two mini-contents. No, it's not time to get your swim trunks and sunscreen yet. And if the Somali and Arabian plates do move far enough to form an oceanic spreading

4:13ridge, it'll take millions of years before this happens. So I guess it's more interesting to stick to exploring this sixth ocean below the Earth's surface for now. The idea of subsurface oceans goes beyond the borders of our planet. It's possible many moons and planets out there have them too. Our home planet is the only one we know about with consistent bodies of liquid water on the surface, true. In our solar system, we circle around the sun in something called the habitable zone. The temperature and atmospheric pressure within the zone allow water to remain in liquid form all the time. But a couple of moons in our solar system could also contain significant amounts of water under their surface. In Settlest, one of Saturn's moons is the first one. In Settlest is a small, frozen ball, seven times smaller in diameter than our moon. But it's the sixth biggest moon of Saturn. Nearly a decade ago, a spacecraft found evidence that there was a large ocean under its surface.

5:19It found and sampled water from the eruptions that resembled geysers. A geyser is a rare type of hot spring that erupts and sends jets of steam and water into the air. You know, like old, faithful and yellow stone? Well, this water was erupting through fishers in the ice at the south pole of the moon. That means there might be a liquid ocean under the thick layers of ice. The ocean there is almost nothing like ours. The ocean on Earth is relatively shallow, on average 2.2 miles deep. And it covers three quarters of our planet's surface. It gets colder the closer you come to the seafloor and is warmer if you stay close to the surface because of the sun's rays. But the subsurface ocean on In Settlest is at least 18 miles deep. It's cooler at the top because that part is near the ice shell. And warmer at the bottom because of the heat coming from the moon's core. But both our ocean and the ocean on In Settlest are salty.

6:20In Settlest is one of the few places in our solar system that has liquid water, which makes it an interesting spot to search for signs of life. Another one is Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. Scientists think similar eruptions of water could be happening there. Knowing there are such geysers there tells us these moons have their own source of energy. Maybe the energy that makes the water erupt comes from gravity or radiation. The same energy could keep a large body of liquid water under the ice. You could even support some forms of life. There are thousands of planets beyond our solar system that orbit other stars. Some are even in the habitable zone. Over a quarter of the ones that we know about could have liquid water, but the majority of them probably have oceans under their surface, like In Settlest and Europa. Pluto might be on this list too, since it's possible it hides a liquid ocean under its thick frozen shell.

7:21This subsurface ocean likely formed long after the dwarf planet did, after the heat coming from radioactive elements in Pluto's core melted some of its ice. There's also something called water worlds. Those are moons or planets with global oceans that are more common than we thought. I mean, some call Earth a water world too. 71% of its surface is water after all, and when you look at our home planet from space, you mostly get those blue marble pictures. When exploring other planets, especially those outside of our solar system, researchers often go with a policy of follow the water. After all, water is the main element we know that's necessary for supporting life. And when there's a water world that's close to its parent star, scientists assume it must have formed way farther and then moved closer once it's orbit shrank. The composition of the planet was set when it was in a colder orbit, or in other words,

8:22when it made a wider circle around its star. We call the process of orbital shrinking a migration, and if water worlds are really that common, it can be proof that migration really happens. Exoplanets are all those planets that orbit around other stars, not our sun. Some exoplanets may have oceans that are way deeper than any of those in our solar system. Exoplanets or even thousands of miles deep. Our Mariana trench is scary, and it's not even seven miles deep. And those exoplanet oceans are, wow, almost bottomless. That's it for today. So hey, if you've pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends. Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side.