{"id":238317,"date":"2026-06-04T02:29:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/deep-earth-seismic-anomalies-may-be-explained-by-newly-discovered-manganese-compound"},"modified":"2026-06-04T02:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T07:29:26","slug":"deep-earth-seismic-anomalies-may-be-explained-by-newly-discovered-manganese-compound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/06\/deep-earth-seismic-anomalies-may-be-explained-by-newly-discovered-manganese-compound","title":{"rendered":"Deep-Earth seismic anomalies may be explained by newly discovered manganese compound"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/deep-earth-seismic-anomalies-may-be-explained-by-newly-discovered-manganese-compound2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists know that manganese, in its various oxide forms, plays a significant role in Earth\u2019s geochemical cycles. However, the exact forms of manganese, their abundance and the mechanisms behind these cycles that occur in Earth\u2019s deep, high-pressure interior are not well understood. But, a recent study, <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.aps.org\/prb\/abstract\/10.1103\/85kd-vnbt\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Physical Review B<\/i>, reports on a newly discovered manganese rich compound that might help shed light on manganese\u2019s behavior in Earth\u2019s interior and explain why seismic waves slow down in certain regions.<\/p>\n<p>While Earth\u2019s mantle mostly consists of oxygen, magnesium, silicon, and iron, other elements, like manganese, also play an important role. Manganese oxides, such as MnO, Mn<sub>3<\/sub>O<sub>4<\/sub>, Mn<sub>2<\/sub>O<sub>3<\/sub>, MnO<sub>2<\/sub>, are known to exist in Earth\u2019s interior and have been studied in the context of their stability in the high-pressure conditions of Earth\u2019s mantle, but researchers think there may be additional manganese oxides involved.<\/p>\n<p>These compounds have the ability to react with other compounds (and oxidize) depending on the surrounding pressure and temperature. They often act as powerful, pressure-sensitive redox agents, actively participating in deep-Earth geochemical cycling by reacting with and oxidizing subducted iron-bearing minerals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists know that manganese, in its various oxide forms, plays a significant role in Earth\u2019s geochemical cycles. However, the exact forms of manganese, their abundance and the mechanisms behind these cycles that occur in Earth\u2019s deep, high-pressure interior are not well understood. But, a recent study, published in Physical Review B, reports on a newly [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-238317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238317\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}