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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 12 2016, @08:12PM   Printer-friendly
from the space-oceans dept.

Water and aqueous solutions can behave strangely under pressure. Experiments carried out at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences using Raman spectroscopy and a diamond anvil cell showed that magnesium sulfate dissolved in water was separated less than expected in magnesium and sulfate ions above a pressure of 0.2 Gigapascal, which equals 2,000 times the normal air pressure. Moreover, ion pairing even increased with pressure above about 0.5 Gigapascal.

This is the opposite of the predicted trend that salt solutions become more dissociated with increasing pressure. However, the previously unknown anomaly was only observed at comparably low temperatures. Already at 50 °C, the solutions behaved as expected. "That's why this effect does not occur in the Earth's interior", says Christian Schmidt of the GFZ, "as the pressure in our oceans is not high enough even in the deep-sea trenches, and the temperature is too high in the Earth's crust and mantle."
...
Their results may help in studies of the oceans that are probably hidden under thick icy shells in Pluto and in the moons Ganymede, Callisto, and Titan. It is very likely that magnesium sulfate is the major or among the most abundant solutes in these oceans, because it is generated by weathering of magnesium silicates in ocean floors. If more ion pairs form, magnesium silicate weathering is enhanced. "This means that the oceans in these icy worlds are probably saltier than currently thought", says Christian Schmidt. As the ion concentration determines the electrical conductivity of aqueous solutions, the finding will help to better interpret magnetometric data obtained by spacecrafts.

The finding could help us explore non-terrestrial, sub-surface oceans in the solar system.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @01:00AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 13 2016, @01:00AM (#426167)

    Sorry, I'm out of juice.