GoKawiilSandia's Z machine used to test how Earth's mantle stores water
At Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, mineral physicist Alisha Clark completed the final shot of a multi-year project using the Z machine to recreate the extreme pressures found deep inside Earth. The device, normally used to test the reliability of US nuclear weapons, fired an electrical pulse into water-infused glass samples to examine how water behaves when trapped in Earth's interior during planetary formation.
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The experiment could help settle a long-running geoscience debate over whether Earth's water originated from material trapped inside the planet as it formed, rather than arriving later via comets or asteroids. Because the Z machine is primarily reserved for weapons-stockpile testing, access for planetary science is rare, making this kind of fundamental research opportunity limited and costly. Findings from these high-pressure simulations could reshape theories about how rocky planets acquire and retain water, with implications for understanding habitability elsewhere.
- Sandia's Z machine, built mainly for nuclear stockpile testing, was used to study Earth's water origins.
- Researcher Alisha Clark completed the final shot in a multi-year project simulating deep-Earth pressures.
- The work addresses whether Earth trapped water internally during formation 4.5 billion years ago.
Source: nature.com — Dinneen, 2026-09-30
Published there as: “How did Earth get its water? Inside the extreme machine seeking answers”
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