Earth's Internal Oceans?

[jimmynhp]

Im sure a lot of you are familiar with the news of the discovery that a mega-ocean has been found beneath the Earth's surface. The question is how did this ocean get there if it was not possible for water to condense at such a high rate with the temperatures under the Earth's surface constantly evaporating the water. Thinking about this question makes me think that it could of been a giant hydrogen and oxygen reaction, combusted by the earth's flammable insides.. (impossible to create so much water )

 

(Jimmy, 13, London)

Edited July 9, 2014 by jimmynhp

[Acme]

Im sure a lot of you are familiar with the news of the discovery that a mega-ocean has been found beneath the Earth's surface. The question is how did this ocean get there if it was not possible for water to condense at such a high rate with the temperatures under the Earth's surface constantly evaporating the water. Thinking about this question makes me think that it could of been a giant hydrogen and oxygen reaction..

 

(Jimmy, 13, London)

'Mega-ocean' is a catchy headline term with no scientific value. The water is bound up in minerals, not sloshing around down there.

 

New Evidence for Oceans of Water Deep in the Earth: Water bound in mantle rock alters our view of the Earths composition

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of New Mexico report evidence for potentially oceans worth of water deep beneath the United States. Though not in the familiar liquid form -- the ingredients for water are bound up in rock deep in the Earths mantle -- the discovery may represent the planets largest water reservoir.

...

Northwestern geophysicist Steve Jacobsen and University of New Mexico seismologist Brandon Schmandt have found deep pockets of magma located about 400 miles beneath North America, a likely signature of the presence of water at these depths. The discovery suggests water from the Earths surface can be driven to such great depths by plate tectonics, eventually causing partial melting of the rocks found deep in the mantle. ...

[jimmynhp]

Makes more sense.

[Professor Blue]

water is everywhere underground ...all over ....we are made up of almost 90% of water....icebergs are huge water icecubes....

[arc]

You might find this paper interesting, It is regarding Mars and what water may have been available in its basaltic rock deep within its interior.

 

http://seismo.berkeley.edu/~manga/phillips2001.pdf

Ancient Geodynamics and Global-Scale Hydrology on Mars
Roger J. Phillips,1 Maria T. Zuber, 2, 3 Sean C. Solomon, 4 Matthew P. Golombek,5 Bruce M. Jakosky 6 W. Bruce Banerdt, 5 David E. Smith,3
Rebecca M. E. Williams, 1 Brian M. Hynek, 1 Oded Aharonson, 2 Steven A. Hauck II, 1
1 McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
2 Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3 Earth Sciences Directorate, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA.
4 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC 20015, USA.
5 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
6 Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

The release of CO2 and H2O to the martian atmosphere from magma erupted and intruded during Tharsis formation may have affected the Noachian climate. For the 100-km-thick elastic lithosphere we assume (2), the observed topography plus the volume of material contained within the depression resulting from Tharsis loading amounts to ~ 3 x 10^8 km^3 of igneous material, which is equivalent to a 2-km-thick global layer (30). For a magmatic CO2 content of 0.65 weight percent (wt %) [which is consistent with Hawaiian basaltic lavas (31)] and an H2O content of 2 wt % (32), the total release of gases from Tharsis magmas could produce the integrated equivalent of a 1.5-bar CO2 atmosphere and a 120-m-thick global layer of water. These quantities of volatiles are sufficient to warm the atmosphere to the point at which liquid water is stable at the surface (33). The accumulation of atmospheric CO2 may have made the latter part of the Noachian the most favorable time for this condition.

[Professor Blue]

water is everywhere underground ...all over ....we are made up of almost 90% of water....icebergs are huge water icecubes....

 

Climate Change, Chaos, and The Little Ice Age: How the History of the 13th - 19thC informs us about climate change today. Wars, famine, migration, SPAM? Shakespeare?

Sometimes we like to think that math and science don have anything to do with the humanities. How we live in our world isn't shaped by our environment. But of course it is. We are shaping our environment; our environment is also shaping us.

url deleted

EXCELLENT short video by the guy who wrote ‚The Fault in Our Stars‚.

[swansont]

 

Climate Change, Chaos, and The Little Ice Age: How the History of the 13th - 19thC informs us about climate change today. Wars, famine, migration, SPAM? Shakespeare?

Sometimes we like to think that math and science don have anything to do with the humanities. How we live in our world isn't shaped by our environment. But of course it is. We are shaping our environment; our environment is also shaping us.

url deleted

EXCELLENT short video by the guy who wrote ‚The Fault in Our Stars‚.

 

!

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[billiards]

I remember there was a story about a diamond that had a crystal of ringwoodite in it. Geochemical analysis found quite a high percentage of water volatile component in the crystal. The inference being that there is a lot of water inside the Earth.

 

However, I recommend caution. Chances are there is a lot of water in the earth's mantle, however, the amount is very poorly constrained. The evidence from diamond inclusions is potentially highly biased. What if diamonds formation is favoured in places where water content is high? Then by analysing diamonds we would form the impression that there is a lot of water in the mantle. This is what is known as a sampling bias. To know for sure how much water there is, we should look to as many strands of evidence as possible, and we should always consider the potential biases in the data.