Mar. 13 – New frontiers in the study of magma and tectonic plates have just been opened, thanks to a study published in Nature by an international team of experts, which saw the participation of Professor Nestola of Padova University. The study focuses on olivina, formula (Mg,Fe)2SiO4, which makes up 60% of the Earth’s internal structure. Olivina turns into wadsleyite, which has the same formula but different atomic structure, at 410 km beneath the surface. At 510 km it then turns into ringwoodite. Geologists have used specific instruments to recreate natural conditions within a lab and obtain from olivina the two other materials. Wadsleyite and ringwoodite have never been found in nature on the surface, so from these experiments it emerged that both should be found between the upper and lower mantels, in an area called transition zone at 410-660 km below the surface. Seismic topography of the zone had previously revealed that they should not be found there, however. Hence, geologists began considering that the zone would be less dense than the two mantels – containing more water. However, the lab recreated elements did not contain any water. To reunite theory and practice, geologists have tried since the 1990s to synthesize the two elements with less density, ultimately recreating the elements with 2.5% water. Until today, no one had found wadsleyite or ringwoodite in nature, on the Earth’s surface. This would have allowed to prove that between the two dry mantels there is a hydrated layer. In the paper, entitled “Hydrous mantle transition zone indicated by ringwoodite included within diamond”, the team proved as much thanks to the discovery of the first ringwoodite specimen found inside a diamon in Brasil, in the province of Juina. The material was composed by water for 1.4%.