Deep oceans dissolve the rocky shell of water-ice planets

Space Daily

Published

Potsdam, Germany (SPX) May 27, 2021

What is happening deep beneath the surface of ice planets? Is there liquid water, and if so, how does it interact with the planetary rocky "seafloor"? New experiments show that on water-ice planets between the size of our Earth and up to six times this size, water selectively leaches magnesium from typical rock minerals. The conditions with pressures of hundred thousand atmospheres and tem

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