Water is the source of life, and the earth’s ability to become a living planet is directly related to the large amount of liquid water resources on the earth’s surface. Life on earth includes human beings, and most of its components are water, which shows how important water is to life.
Although water is a common substance on the earth, it has many magical features. In the eyes of many people, we are dealing with water every day, it is nothing special, and we also know that water has three forms: liquid, gas and solid.
For these three forms of water transformation, we have already understood in the junior high school physics textbooks that changes in temperature will cause water to transform between different forms. One kind of physical three forms, constantly changing in cycles, this is beyond the magic of water.
There is not much mystery about the liquid and gaseous state of water, but the solid state is not as simple as we imagined. After the water freezes, we call it ice. So what is so special about ice? There may be only one or several ice forms in our daily lives, but in fact, so far, scientists have discovered 18 types of ice.
Under different conditions, the shape of ice is different. The ice we see in daily life is formed under one atmospheric pressure and the temperature is below 0 degrees. With the constant change of atmospheric pressure combined with other conditions, the type of ice will change.
Among the 18 types of ice discovered by scientists, the most mysterious and special is No. 7 ice. Many people may not have heard of the No. 7 ice. It is a special kind of ice that needs to be formed under normal temperature and combined with 10,000 atmospheres of pressure.
There are only two conditions for the formation of No. 7 ice. One is that the temperature needs to be at room temperature of 4.9°C, and the other is that the environment needs to reach 10,000 times the atmospheric pressure, which is a pressure of 3 billion Pa. As long as these two conditions are met at the same time, No. 7 ice can be born.
The first condition is naturally easy to achieve, but the second condition is very harsh. Such a strong air pressure can only be reached deep underground. So can scientists make No. 7 ice in the laboratory? With the current human technological strength, it is also very difficult to make No. 7 ice, and it needs to pay a great price.
No. 7 ice needs very harsh conditions to form, so its power is naturally very powerful. It was once said that a piece of No. 7 ice thrown into the ocean can freeze the ocean within a few days, and finally freeze the earth, so true. Is there such a terrible power?
The crystallization speed of No. 7 ice is very fast. There is no doubt that it can reach 1,600 kilometers per hour. But we have to understand that the most important thing to form Ice 7 is extremely high pressure, which needs to reach 3 billion Pa. We must know that the deepest ocean Mariana Trench has a pressure of only 100 million Pa.
It can be seen how strong the pressure demand of No. 7 ice is. Under harsh conditions, even if we throw a piece of No. 7 ice into the ocean, it is impossible to completely freeze the entire ocean. It can only produce a rapid freezing effect on a small area. Of course, if a large amount of No. 7 ice is thrown into the ocean, then the frozen earth may also be able to do it.
The special ice No. 7 caused a sensation in the scientific community as soon as it was discovered. Although it is a form of ice, it is formed under such harsh conditions and naturally very powerful. And such a powerful ice cube reminds scientists of new energy. If we can mass-produce No. 7 ice, we can give mankind an extra powerful new energy.
Unfortunately, because the conditions required for the formation of No. 7 ice are too harsh, even in the laboratory, it is not so easy to manufacture. So in nature, is there such a special No. 7 ice? We must know that nature is a huge treasure house. As long as things discovered by science, we can often find them in nature.
But does No. 7 ice, which requires a pressure of 3 billion Pascals to form, really exist in nature? The pressure in the depths of the ocean cannot be this kind of ice. Only in the depths of the earth can there be such a large pressure, but as the depth of the earth continues to increase, the temperature is also rising.
It is impossible to keep the temperature in the depths of the ground that can reach a pressure of 3 billion pascals below a normal temperature, where the temperature may reach thousands of degrees Celsius. Without any one of these conditions, it is impossible to form No. 7 legislation. Isn’t it true that nature does not have the ability to form No. 7 ice?
Such an impossible guess was broken in 2018. In March 2018, a research team led by geoscientist Oliver Tsona at the University of Nevada was looking for carbon dioxide in a specific form in natural diamonds when they accidentally discovered a sample of ice block 7.
This small piece of naturally formed No. 7 ice was found inside the diamond. Many people may wonder, why is No. 7 ice formed inside the diamond? In fact, this has a certain relationship with the conditions of diamond formation.
We all know that diamond is a kind of crystal formed by a kind of carbon element under high temperature and pressure. It is currently the hardest ore found in the world. Natural diamonds need to be formed under high pressure and high temperature conditions deep in the earth, and the pressure requirements are very high.
In a specific area deep in the earth, there is no shortage of super pressures such as 3 billion Pascals, and the temperature here is very high, so diamonds are formed under high temperature and high pressure. In the process of this formation, water vapor may be wrapped into the diamond by coincidence.
Gemstones have a special ability, that is, after the diamond is formed, even if it is far away from the high-pressure environment, its interior can maintain the environmental pressure when the diamond is formed for a long time. After the diamond is formed, it convections to the upper area along with geological activities. At this time, the temperature inside the diamond will drop a lot, reaching a normal temperature.
Inside the diamond at room temperature, a very strong pressure is maintained. At this time, the two conditions for forming No. 7 ice are met, so the water wrapped in the diamond will form No. 7 ice. This process seems to us to be uncomplicated, but in fact, it takes luck to form the No. 7 ice in nature in this way.
In the process of diamond formation in the depths of the earth, it takes luck for moisture to enter the interior. Even if the water enters the diamond with good luck, it takes luck to enter the upper area in a short time following the geological activity. Once the time is too long, even if the diamond reaches the upper layer, its internal super-pressure environment will disappear.
Therefore, how rare is the natural No. 7 ice discovered by scientists in 2018? It may be the only natural No. 7 ice that exists for a long time in the future. However, if we want to apply this No. 7 ice, we cannot rely on nature. We can only hope that it will be realized through technology in the future.
Scientists found No. 7 ice inside the diamond, providing an idea for our future laboratory to make No. 7 ice. You know, we can also man-made diamonds now. With the rapid development of technology, man-made diamonds will become more advanced and mature in the future. Perhaps we can use the manufacturing process of man-made diamonds to make No. 7 ice.
As long as we can realize the industrial manufacturing of No. 7 ice in the future, mankind will have an extra powerful energy source to solve the risk of continuous depletion of the earth’s energy consumption.