Water Reservoir Inside Earth

A massive reservoir of water three times the volume of Earth's oceans has been discovered 700 km down inside the mantle locked within a blue rock called ringwoodite, with the liquid "sweating" out of the mineral due to the great pressures and temperatures.

Billion-Year-Old Water

Scientists have discovered ancient water pockets through boreholes into a Canadian mine that are at least 1.5 billion years old, possibly significantly older, part of an isolated and interconnected fluid system in the deep crust that contains chemicals that may able to support microbial life.

Ancient Carbon Resurfacing

A new study reveals a significant amount of carbon stored in lakes and rivers -- often thousands of years old -- is still being released into the atmosphere, challenging current models of long-term carbon storage in aquatic systems and its dynamics in modern climatology.

New Life in Dead Sea

Results from a 2010 diving expedition to the bottom of the Dead Sea reveal an "impressive" network of about 30 craters with freshwater springs and a host of new microbial life forms living in the otherwise harsh hypersalinity of the location.

Electrically Charged Ice

Researchers have found that when cooled to extreme temperatures such as 60 K, the normally unordered polar molecules of ordinary water ice (type Ih) align and create distinct regions of electrical charges (type XI), a change in ice's physical properties with implications for models of planetary formation.

Underground Amazon River

Scientists have discovered an underground river 4000 meters beneath the Amazon River of South America (named Hamza) that also flows from west to east, and may be responsible for the lower salinity at the mouth of the Amazon.

Three Flavors of Moon Water

Combining data from NASA's LCROSS and India's Chandrayaan-1 lunar probes, scientists have identified three distinct types of water composition that exist on the Moon: nearly pure water ice, ice containing various chemical compounds in solution, and an ice-soil mixture.

New Energy-Efficient Water Purification Process Developed

A scientist at Yale University has developed a new energy-efficient technology for drawing fresh water from nonpotable water sources.

Using a process called "forward osmosis," the system exploits the natural tendency of water to diffuse through a semipermeable membrane. It draws pure water away from its contaminants into a solution of concentrated salts, which are then easily removed by a low heat treatment. The system requires only about one-tenth the electrical energy used by traditional desalinization techniques. Yale University is commercializing this desalinization technology through a private company called Oasys.

Another similar technology is being developed into what is called an "osmotic heat engine" to more efficiently generate electricity using low-temperature heat sources. In a process called pressure-retarded osmosis, a solution is held under high pressure while water moves into the solution via osmosis. The pressure of the expanding volume of solution is then released through a turbine to generate electrical energy. The costs of producing electricity via this method can be competitive, as industrial waste heat can be used to fuel the process.

These results were published in the December issue of Environmental Science & Technology.

Source: ScienceDaily; Photo: Yale University