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Deep-Earth seismic anomalies may be explained by newly discovered manganese compound

Phys · · 836 words · By Krystal Kasal
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What to know about Deep-Earth seismic anomalies may be explained by newly discovered manganese compound

The article discusses a study published in Physical Review B regarding the discovery of a manganese-rich compound, Mn4O, and a high-pressure phase of Mn3O4. Researchers suggest these compounds could explain seismic anomalies in Earth's deep mantle and the accumulation of manganese ores during the Great Oxidation Event.

Propaganda risk 0%
Claims checked 11
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left0%
Center67%
Right33%

3 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

June 3, 2026 report Deep-Earth seismic anomalies may be explained by newly discovered manganese compound Krystal Kasal Author Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Robert Egan Associate Editor Scientists know that manganese, in its various oxide forms, plays a…

Why it matters

However, the exact forms of manganese, their abundance and the mechanisms behind these cycles that occur in Earth's deep, high-pressure interior are not well understood.

Common ground

But, a recent study, published in Physical Review B, reports on a newly discovered manganese rich compound that might help shed light on manganese's behavior in Earth's interior and explain why seismic waves slow down in certain regions.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

The article discusses a study published in Physical Review B regarding the discovery of a manganese-rich compound, Mn4O, and a high-pressure phase of Mn3O4. Researchers suggest these compounds could explain seismic anomalies in Earth's deep mantle and the accumulation of manganese ores during the Great Oxidation Event.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deep-earth-seismic-anomalies-newly.html

analyticsAnalysis

0%
Propaganda Score
confidence: 100%
Low risk. This article shows minimal use of propaganda techniques.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 11 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

info Single Source 4
check_circle Corroborated 3
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
schedule Pending 1
help
Claim 1: “The results of the study are based on computational models”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was provided regarding the methodology (computational models) of the study mentioned.
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Claim 2: “Manganese oxides, such as MnO, Mn3O4, Mn2O3, MnO2, are known to exist in Earth's interior”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent scientific sources (ScienceDirect, research papers) list MnO, Mn3O4, Mn2O3, and MnO2 as common manganese oxides.
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web search NEUTRAL — Manganese oxides refer to compounds such as MnO2, Mn2O3, and Mn3O4 that are recognized for their significant theoretical specific capacities and potential ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/physics-and-astronomy/m…
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web search NEUTRAL — Oct 5, 2020 ... stoichiometric oxides, MnO, Mn2O3, Mn3O4, MnO2 as well as metastable ... 12 Pyrolusite (β-. MnO2) is one of the most stable manganese oxides with ...
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/deb2/05fe0ebaff56645b22d7a1…
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web search NEUTRAL — For example, the most common manganese oxides (in order of increasing oxygen content) are: MnO, Mn3O4, Mn2O3, Mn5O8, and MnO2. The dominant structural unit ...
https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1775530
info
Claim 3: “discovery of Mn4O, a manganese-rich compound that is stable from surface pressure up to at least 150 GPa”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this specific claim (Mn4O stability up to 150 GPa) consists of general Wikipedia entries on Manganese and unrelated papers. However, the evidence for claim 7 mentions 'newly discovered phases' and 'Mn4O', suggesting this is a specific finding from a single recent study not yet widely mirrored in general reference works.
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web search NEUTRAL — Manganese is a chemical element; it has the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese
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web search NEUTRAL — The specific surface area was assessed using the BET method from adsorption data in a relative pressure range from 0.06 to 0.10. The total pore volume, Vt, was ...
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jp064941v
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web search NEUTRAL — The Fermi surface topology of LCBO in the stable crystal structure with spin polarized condition at zero pressure is illustrated in Fig. 5. Total four ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S223878541…
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Claim 4: “Manganese also appears to have played a role in the Great Oxidation Event (GOE), which dramatically increased Earth's surface oxygen around 2.4 billion years ago.”
CORROBORATED
Wikipedia and scientific articles confirm the Great Oxidation Event occurred around 2.4 billion years ago and that manganese enrichments/oxides are linked to the emergence of oxygenic photosynthesis.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) or Great Oxygenation Event, also called the Oxygen Catastrophe, Oxygen Revolution, Oxygen Crisis, or Oxygen Holocaust, was a time interval during the Earth's Paleoprote…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxidation_Event
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The manganese cycle is the biogeochemical cycle of manganese through the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lithosphere. There are bacteria that oxidise manganese to insoluble oxides, and others t…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_cycle
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event (NOE), also called the Second Great Oxidation Event, was a geologic time interval between around 850 and 540 million years ago during the Neoproterozoic era, durin…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoproterozoic_oxygenation_eve…
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 5: “a recent study, published in Physical Review B, reports on a newly discovered manganese rich compound”
SINGLE SOURCE
While Wikipedia confirms Physical Review B is a scientific journal, the provided web search results for this specific claim are irrelevant (Study.com, Studley AI), and no specific article about a manganese-rich compound in that journal was found in the evidence provided, except for a reference in claim 7's evidence which mentions 'newly discovered' phases but doesn't explicitly name the journal in that snippet.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Physical Review is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The journal was established in 1893 by Edward Nichols. It publishes original research as well as scientific and literature reviews on all aspects…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Review
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Physical Review A (also known as PRA) is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society covering atomic, molecular, and optical physics and quantum information. …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Review_A
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Physical Review Letters (PRL), established in 1958, is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal that is published 52 times per year by the American Physical Society. The journal is considered one of the mo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Review_Letters
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 6: “the density of Mn4O allowed for it to float above the iron there and the low sound velocity of both Mn4O and Mn3O4 can explain why seismic waves travel more slowly in certain zones.”
CORROBORATED
The evidence from 'Deep-Earth seismic anomalies' explicitly states that the density of Mn4O allows it to float above iron and that these phases explain seismic anomalies in ULVZs. This is corroborated by the general definition of ULVZs from Wikipedia.
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web search NEUTRAL — Ultra low velocity zones (ULVZs) are patches on the core-mantle boundary that have extremely low seismic velocities. The zones are mapped to be hundreds of kilometers in diameter and tens of kilometer…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low_velocity_zone
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web search NEUTRAL — The researchers say that the presence of these new phases at the CMB might explain seismic anomalies involving ultralow velocity zones (ULVZs), where seismic waves slow down. They say that the density…
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-deep-earth-seismic-anomalies-n…
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web search NEUTRAL — This rust material could explain the detections of ultralow-velocity zones (ULVZ) in seismic data.lower limit of 1.2 to 1 to an upper limit of 4.5 to 1 for all possible materials explaining the origin…
https://science.thewire.in/the-sciences/earth-core-rusting/
info
Claim 7: “Mn4O and Mn3O4 remain thermodynamically stable up to 4,000 K under pressures corresponding to the CMB (∼135 GPa).”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of irrelevant results about the Pyramid of Djoser. No scientific evidence in the provided set corroborates the 4,000 K stability at 135 GPa.
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web search NEUTRAL — هرم زوسر أو هرم سقارة أو الهرم المدرج هو معلم آثري بجبانة سقارة شمال غرب مدينة ممفيس القديمة في مصر. بُني خلال القرن 27 ق.م لدفن الفرعون زوسر ؛ بناه له وزيره إمحوتب. وكان المهندس والطبيب أمحتب هو المه…
https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/هرم_زوسر
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web search NEUTRAL — يعتبر هرم الملك زوسر المدرج أحد أشهر المعالم الأثرية الأكثر شهرة فى مصر، ويشكل نقطة تحول تاريخية مهمة في الآثار الجنائزية المصرية القديمة ، كما يعتبر ثورة في الهندسة المعمارية الحجرية والدفن الملكي. ب…
https://egymonuments.gov.eg/ar/monuments/the-step-pyramid-co…
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web search NEUTRAL — 1 day ago · ويعد هرم زوسر نموذجاً مختلفاً في التصميم عن أهرامات الجيزة، وهي مرحلة متطورة من تصميم القبور المكونة من مصطبة واحدة إلى هرم مكون من 6 مصاطب بنيت فوق بعضها البعض.
https://www.tagepedia.org/Entry.aspx?id=233487&title=هرم_زوس…
verified
Claim 8: “Earth's mantle mostly consists of oxygen, magnesium, silicon, and iron”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Multiple authoritative sources, including Britannica and National Geographic, confirm the mantle is composed of silicates (oxygen and silicon) and that the bulk of Earth's mass consists of iron, oxygen, silicon, and magnesium.
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web search NEUTRAL — Earth's mantle is a layer of silicate rock between the crust and the outer core. It has a mass of 4.01×10 24 kg (8.84×10 24 lb) and makes up 86% of the mass ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth's_mantle
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web search NEUTRAL — Apr 30, 2024 ... The rocks that make up Earth's mantle are mostly silicates —a wide variety of compounds that share a silicon and oxygen structure. Common ...
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/mantle/
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web search NEUTRAL — Earth - Core, Mantle, Crust: More than 90 percent of Earth's mass is composed of iron, oxygen, silicon, and magnesium, elements that can form the ...
https://www.britannica.com/place/Earth/The-interior
info
Claim 9: “They also found a new high-pressure phase of Mn3O4, which was stable above 72 GPa, but not at surface pressure.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The evidence provided for this claim is largely irrelevant (James Blunt songs, TV series). Only the context from the 'Deep-Earth seismic anomalies' snippet in claim 7's evidence supports the existence of new phases, but the specific 72 GPa figure is not corroborated by multiple independent sources in the provided set.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Manganese is a chemical element; it has the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. First isolated in the 1770s, mangane…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese
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web search NEUTRAL — " High " is the debut single of British singer James Blunt and Ricky Ross for Blunt's debut album, Back to Bedlam. The song was produced by Tom Rothrock. It was released in October 2004 and failed to …
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_(James_Blunt_song)
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web search NEUTRAL — High is a 2020 Hindi-language crime, thriller drama web series directed by Nikhil Rao and released on MX Player. The series starring Akshay Oberoi, Mrinmayee Godbole and Ranvir Shorey as lead roles.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_(TV_series)
+ 1 more evidence source
schedule
Claim 10: “Yuelong Ding et al, Deep-mantle stability of Mn4O and its role in Earth's manganese cycle, Physical Review B (2026). DOI: 10.1103/85kd-vnbt”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
help
Claim 11: “Mn4O can help explain why magnesium ores accumulated so much during the GOE.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found in the provided search results to support or refute the claim that Mn4O explains magnesium ore accumulation during the GOE.
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.