Ocean Worlds

[Mr Monkeybat]

I recently watched a Horizon documentary about the possibility of life on exoplanets. It talked about the exoplanets discovered that have a sizable fraction of their mass made up of water such as Kepler 22b and seemed to come to the conclusion that all sorts of fish like creatures could live their. But on global ocean thousands of miles deep with no interrupting continents wouldn't all sediments and trace elements settle to the bottom leaving any alien algae starved of nutrients just leaving a global oceanic desert.

 

I dont know how possible life at volcanic vents beneath thousands of miles of water pressure is, but the documentary did not go in that direction instead having there CG artists create surface water lifeforms.

[Moontanman]

I recently watched a Horizon documentary about the possibility of life on exoplanets. It talked about the exoplanets discovered that have a sizable fraction of their mass made up of water such as Kepler 22b and seemed to come to the conclusion that all sorts of fish like creatures could live their. But on global ocean thousands of miles deep with no interrupting continents wouldn't all sediments and trace elements settle to the bottom leaving any alien algae starved of nutrients just leaving a global oceanic desert.

 

I dont know how possible life at volcanic vents beneath thousands of miles of water pressure is, but the documentary did not go in that direction instead having there CG artists create surface water lifeforms.

 

Oceans thousands of miles deep would have ice for the bottom, pressure at that depth would form abyssal plains of ice at even very hot depths.

[arc]

 

Oceans thousands of miles deep would have ice for the bottom, pressure at that depth would form abyssal plains of ice at even very hot depths.

 

Did they say anything about tidal heating, that much ocean could have some pretty sizable movement. The tidal movement of a magma boundary area below the crust could also provide additional heat flux. Could the right orbit and gravitational stresses provide the energy?

[Mr Monkeybat]

 

Oceans thousands of miles deep would have ice for the bottom, pressure at that depth would form abyssal plains of ice at even very hot depths.

Curious is that similar Clathrates? And is it denser than normal ice or would it have a tendency to float making the boundary layer unstable?

[Moontanman]

Curious is that similar Clathrates? And is it denser than normal ice or would it have a tendency to float making the boundary layer unstable?

 

 

No it doesn't float if it is ice 3 or higher.

 

As far as i know It's not a cathrate.