--- title: Evidence of Massive Water Reserve Near Earth's Center description: A rare mineral discovery suggests a reservoir that could hold as much water as all the earth’s oceans combined canonical: https://time.com/22316/massive-water-reserve-near-earths-center-nature-study/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-12T21:39:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:44:12.927Z article:section: Science og:title: Evidence of Massive Water Reserve Near Earth's Center og:description: A rare mineral discovery suggests a reservoir that could hold as much water as all the earth’s oceans combined og:url: https://time.com/22316/massive-water-reserve-near-earths-center-nature-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5153a31240b4327/6986853413c79f8cac191019/earth-hidden-reservoirs.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Earth seen from space og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Evidence of Massive Water Reserve Near Earth's Center twitter:description: A rare mineral discovery suggests a reservoir that could hold as much water as all the earth’s oceans combined twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5153a31240b4327/6986853413c79f8cac191019/earth-hidden-reservoirs.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scientists Find Evidence of Massive Water Reserve Near Earth’s Center  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Mar 12, 2014 9:39 PM UTC  SPACE - UNDATED: The earth. Updating NASA's awe inspiring 'Blue Marble' series of images of Earth from space, the 2012 version is "The most amazing highest resolution of Earth ever', according to the Space Agency. Taken from the VIIRS (The visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite) imaging instrument aboard NASA's recently launched Suomi NPP satellite, the beautiful picture is a composite image taken on January 4th 2012\. The Suomu NPP is named after the late Verner E. Suomi of Wisconsin University who was known as the father of satellite meteorology. This image is the latest in a line of space photography of Earth which began on December 7, 1972, when the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft snapped our planet from a distance of 28,000 miles. PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA / Barcroft USA /Barcoft Media via Getty Images SPACE - UNDATED: The earth. Updating NASA's awe inspiring 'Blue Marble' series of images of Earth from space, the 2012 version is "The most amazing highest resolution of Earth ever', according to the Space Agency. Taken from the VIIRS (The visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite) imaging instrument aboard NASA's recently launched Suomi NPP satellite, the beautiful picture is a composite image taken on January 4th 2012\. The Suomu NPP is named after the late Verner E. Suomi of Wisconsin University who was known as the father of satellite meteorology. This image is the latest in a line of space photography of Earth which began on December 7, 1972, when the crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft snapped our planet from a distance of 28,000 miles. PHOTOGRAPH BY NASA / Barcroft USA /Barcoft Media via Getty ImagesNASA/Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Mar 12, 2014 9:39 PM UTC Scientists [announced Wednesday](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/earth-secret-reservoir-water-scientists-191039455.html#CRLwW6V) the discovery of a rare mineral never before found on earth that hints at the existence of an enormous water reservoir trapped deep in the earth’s mantle. The findings published in the journal _Nature_ suggest there may be more water than is in all the world’s oceans trapped in the “transition zone” between the upper and lower layers of the earth’s mantle, AFP reports. The evidence stems from the discovery of the mineral Ringwoodite found by amateur gem-hunters in a Brazilian riverbed in 2008\. The mineral, which suggests the existence of water, has been found in meteorites before but never on earth, perhaps because scientists have simply been unable to dig deep enough to find it due to the heat and pressure at play that far beneath the planet’s surface. Implications of the discovery could be profound. “One of the reasons the Earth is such a dynamic planet is the presence of some water in its interior,” said lead researcher Graham Pearson. “Water changes everything about the way a planet works,” The finding comes after scientists announced last year [they’d found](http://science.time.com/2013/12/09/immense-freshwater-reserves-discovered-beneath-ocean-floor/) huge reserves of freshwater trapped beneath the ocean floor. \[[AFP](https://uk.news.yahoo.com/earth-secret-reservoir-water-scientists-191039455.html#CRLwW6V)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/22316/massive-water-reserve-near-earths-center-nature-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/22316/massive-water-reserve-near-earths-center-nature-study/"},"headline":"Scientists Find Evidence of Massive Water Reserve Near Earth’s Center","datePublished":"2014-03-12T21:39:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:44:12.927Z","description":"A rare mineral discovery suggests a reservoir that could hold as much water as all the earth’s oceans combined","url":"https://time.com/22316/massive-water-reserve-near-earths-center-nature-study/","keywords":["Water","geology","Science topic","earth"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5153a31240b4327/6986853413c79f8cac191019/earth-hidden-reservoirs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf5153a31240b4327/6986853413c79f8cac191019/earth-hidden-reservoirs.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Earth seen from space","caption":"Earth seen from space","creditText":"NASA/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/water/","name":"Water"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/22316/massive-water-reserve-near-earths-center-nature-study/","name":"Scientists Find Evidence of Massive Water Reserve Near Earth’s Center"}}]}] ```