As opposed to what, a gift from aliens?
Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
61–70 of 70 posts
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#62My Impacts project depicts a scene from the prolonged bombardment, a time when Earth was cratered by asteroids and comets: * https://impacts.to/downloads/lowres/impacts.pdf#page=9 * https://impacts.to/bibliography.pdf
That's really cool!
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#63Life began in the Ocean, but why did civilization begin on land? Is it because of fire? But I wonder if a different kind of civilization could have emerged
> but why did civilization begin on land?
Octopus have civilization, despite the usual solo trip, group behavior has been observed, small neighborhoods of octopi staying within their shells and occasionally pestering each other.
Some aquatic mammals have civilization as well.
A lot of what's going on just hasn't been observed well
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#64"Other scientists agree that some amount of water could have formed on Earth — but perhaps not nearly enough to produce its oceans." "Earth might have been a water factory for only a moment, but that moment may have been enough to forge oceans." Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already. Although the magnetosphere reduces the influx of Hydrogen in form of solar wind proton bombar…
> Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already.
But life needed water as a requirement to arrive, right? So are you saying that there was a little bit of water for life to get started, before that same life caused the oxygenation event to create more water over millions of years?
Please explain, thank you.
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#65"Other scientists agree that some amount of water could have formed on Earth — but perhaps not nearly enough to produce its oceans." "Earth might have been a water factory for only a moment, but that moment may have been enough to forge oceans." Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already. Although the magnetosphere reduces the influx of Hydrogen in form of solar wind proton bombar…
> Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already. But life needed water as a requirement to arrive, right? So are you saying that there was a little bit of water for life to get started, before that same life caused the oxygenation event to create more water over millions of years? Please explain, thank you.
Is this a chicken and egg like question?
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Octopuses are smart, but I've yet to see anything that suggests they are smarter than dolphins or whales.
I've heard that the biggest limiting factor in octopus ocean domination is their short lifespans. Tool use, building structures, communication, facial recognition, multiple brains, it's all there. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/octopuses-keep-surprising-us-...
Female octopi also die reproducing. Knowledge cannot be passed from one generation to the next. Everything they know is either instinctual or learned.
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
We have counter examples of human pods that never really achieved “civilization”. What’s missing that make them more akin to orcas or wolves?
Written language ? Got it too easy ?
It doesn’t have to be writing. At least one culture used ropes and knots.
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Written language ? Got it too easy ?
It doesn’t have to be writing. At least one culture used ropes and knots.
I think that (Incas) was more numerical record keeping rather than written language.
What's special about written language (which some existing hunter-gatherer tribes still don't have), as opposed to spoken language, is that it allows cultural knowledge to be spread, stored, accumulated, and built upon.
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#69"Other scientists agree that some amount of water could have formed on Earth — but perhaps not nearly enough to produce its oceans." "Earth might have been a water factory for only a moment, but that moment may have been enough to forge oceans." Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already. Although the magnetosphere reduces the influx of Hydrogen in form of solar wind proton bombar…
> Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already. But life needed water as a requirement to arrive, right? So are you saying that there was a little bit of water for life to get started, before that same life caused the oxygenation event to create more water over millions of years? Please explain, thank you.
Well, yes -- some amount of water must have been in there from very beginning, plus what may have fallen in as icy bodies from outer space afterwards, this much is mentioned in the article itself. The question was not if there was water, but how much of it. Most of today's planetary body of water resides in deep depressions -- seas and oceans, which is very different to what must have been initially. Back then, the surface supposedly had very little relief, due to Earth's crust being much thinner at that time. That meant that, whatever water was there, it must have been shallow, spread to very large areas.¹ This condition was especially propitious for life, as it provided ample space for life to proliferate. The first organisms must have been at the bottom of this large, never drying shallow "ocean" or mesh of (at least often) connected seas. Deep enough to shield the emerging life from UV light, but shallow enough for light to reach the developing life, including the first unicellular algae. Even today, most of life lives on the shallow waters, where plants could find minerals and underwater sunlight, and thus the whole food chain above them could be sustained.
¹ Today's amount of water spread all over an Earth with no relief gives you a kilometers-depth ocean. Even with only some modest amount of relief (as it should have been at the beginning), if it didn't reached the water surface to produce shallow waters, then that's a non-starter for life. The life should have waited a lot of time for the Earth to cool down, for the crust get ticker and thus for a more prominent relief to appear in order for it to finally get any chance to emerge. Therefore, it was very important for life to encounter an environment with just modest amount of water.
Re: Where Did Earth Get Its Oceans? Maybe It Made Them Itself
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Well, our planet has magnetosphere and it also had life for a long time already. But life needed water as a requirement to arrive, right? So are you saying that there was a little bit of water for life to get started, before that same life caused the oxygenation event to create more water over millions of years? Please explain, thank you.
Well, yes -- some amount of water must have been in there from very beginning, plus what may have fallen in as icy bodies from outer space afterwards, this much is mentioned in the article itself. The question was not if there was water, but how much of it. Most of today's planetary body of water resides in deep depressions -- seas and oceans, which is very different to what must have been initially. Back then, the s…
Thanks for taking the time.