Oxygen storing stones allow life on earth

Written by Dr. H. P. Bustami

Friday, 28 September 2007

Oxygen factory in the earth crust: precondition for life on earth. Courtesy: photocase.com

Deep inside the earth crust high pressures and temperatures press oxygen into a very rare mineral stone called majorit (Mg3(Fe,Al,Si)2(SiO4)).Under these conditons this mineral functions as oxygen store. When near the surface of earth it decays and oxygen is released. Here it binds with hydrogen (H2) to water (H2O). Geologists from the university of Bonn, Germany, now published in "nature" their new findings. Without the mineral majorit probably earth would be as dry and without life like our neighbour planet mars, how Prof. Christian Ballhaus and his team found out by investigating the rare mineral under lab conditions.

Deep inside the earth (which contains huge amounts of iron oxide= Fe2O3) the crust is melting and iron and oxygen are released. The oxygen which was bound before together with iron now reacts with majorit which normally only exists 250 km beneath earth surface. When getting closer to the earth surface the majorit (moving through convection like hot air in a chimney or in a heater) decays under decreasing pressures. Oxygen again is released now allowing all kinds of chemical or biological oxidation reactions which enable life on earth.

In smaller planets crusts the pressure is not high enough to allow the storage of oxygen in majorit thus there is no convection of newly created oxygen which can react with constantly by crusts evaporated hydrogen to form water, which was the prerequisite for the development of life on earth.

When one day this oxygen factory deep inside our planet would stop producing earth would change into one more dead and soulless planet in the galaxy.

Source: nature (doi:10.1038/nature06183)

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