So what we're saying is, if there was less water then I could have really big back yard. Things may get a little crispy though.
All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
231–240 of 290 posts
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#232See, the water amount isn't that large. What if we crashed some comets that are mostly ice to Mars? Modern technology makes it easy to calculate some order of magnitude effects like what would be the average water coverage increase of Mars if Halley's comet (assuming it was completely water) was crashed there: 3 mm.
Calculation: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=%28halley%27s+comet+vol...
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#233Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article has a strong focus on "available to humans" and "that humans depend on". Many of the water beneath the crust is exactly that, pumping it up is an important source of drinking water. (In my country, the Netherlands, it's the primary, almost only, source of drinking water)
The Netherlands doesn't pump water from beneath the crust! Groundwater is included in the larger freshwater sphere. Water in the mantle would be an additional sphere (not sure if it's freshwater or saltwater).
TIL. I did not get that that from the article. Thanks for correcting me.
I simply presumed that water that's pumped from layers 100m or lower below the surface, water that's sometimes 10.000 years "old", wasn't surface water. But it makes sense to lump it in there too.
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#234NB: The infographic and articles are based on a 1993 publication. More recent research, from about 2017, suggests that there's about as much water in Earth's mantle as in all the oceans, so we either need another drop roughly the volume of the first, or the second drop should be greatly expanded. See: "There’s as much water in Earth’s mantle as in all the oceans" (2017) https://www.newscientist.com/article/2133963-th…
> The water discovered in the mantle is not in a form familiar to us – it is not liquid, ice, or vapor. Instead, it is trapped inside the molecular structure of the minerals in the mantle rock.
IMHO this is not a productive comparison. Hydrogen and oxygen ions inside minerals in rock is far too much of a stretch of imagination to call as water.
https://www.earth.com/news/ringwoodite-mineral-confirms-vast...
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
We could probably terraform Mars if we crashed Europa into Mars.
It would make Mars warmer. It would melt all the ice and CO2. It would give Mars an ocean. Of liquid rock. This is assuming that it doesn't destroy Mars completely. There might be enough fragments to make Solar System dangerous place and destroy life on Earth. Europa is the size of our Moon. Colliding it with Mars would be similar to the collision that formed our Moon.
Let's do it. No one remembers a coward.
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would make Mars warmer. It would melt all the ice and CO2. It would give Mars an ocean. Of liquid rock. This is assuming that it doesn't destroy Mars completely. There might be enough fragments to make Solar System dangerous place and destroy life on Earth. Europa is the size of our Moon. Colliding it with Mars would be similar to the collision that formed our Moon.
But would it stay on Mars? I thought the issue was there was no dynamo in the core, which lets solar winds strip it away. How long would it stay?
There's probably a way to engineer it such that the spin of the planet is 24h, the core is spun up. We'd also like ~365 day years.
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does any of that water, though, ever make it onto the Earth's surface? I'm guessing not, or only miniscule amounts over geologic time through volcanism. For all intents and purposes, I think only counting "surface" water is more useful and intuitive. It's essentially any water that can participate in the hydrologic cycle on Earth, and that water locked beneath the crust doesn't really "matter" for what I think the in…
We don't have access to any part of the planet below a depth of 2.5 miles, so the image should compare the volume of accessible water to the volume of accessible Earth, except then it would fail in its dishonest mission to make people say "gosh that sphere looks relatively small compared to the other sphere, I must restrict myself to ten-second showers." Even if it was accessible water to accessible non-water I don't…
You seem really upset about what to me looks like a quite neutrally presented fact. There are lots of interesting aspects to this picture which don't have anything to do with criticizing you or the length of your morning shower.
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#238[deleted]
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
No tap water comes from the mantle.
You just need a new plumber
Re: All of Earth's water in a single sphere (2019)
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Netherlands doesn't pump water from beneath the crust! Groundwater is included in the larger freshwater sphere. Water in the mantle would be an additional sphere (not sure if it's freshwater or saltwater).
TIL. I did not get that that from the article. Thanks for correcting me. I simply presumed that water that's pumped from layers 100m or lower below the surface, water that's sometimes 10.000 years "old", wasn't surface water. But it makes sense to lump it in there too.
The crust is about 40km thick. The deepest anyone has ever dug is ~12km[0]. It is quite weird to think we live on this crust which has a gigantic mass inside that we can't get to.