Did Earth form with water after all?

[Brian G Turner]

The discovery of a massive fresh-water later beneath a dormant volcano in the Andes could mean that water was present during the formation of the Earth:

Huge lake discovered 15 kilometres under a volcano

Such discoveries add to growing evidence that significant amounts of water exist in Earth’s interior, some of which may even have been the source of today’s oceans. It could be that the water that makes our planet habitable was present in the dust that coalesced to create Earth, rather than arriving later on ice-rich comets or asteroids.

I have to admit, I always found the idea that all the water in the oceans came solely from asteroids a bit odd, not least because of the massive volumes involved, but also because it depended upon a mechanism neither described nor supported - that water could form in asteroids rather than planetoids.

So although it's only a small headline, IMO this could be the start of a major new understanding of how the Earth formed.

 

[Nick B]

Ive always found the idea that all water came from asteroids and comets odd, as there is no reason I can think of that meant no ice was involved in the formation of planets.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I seem to remember that vast reservoirs of water (albeit trapped in peculiar 'water-laden' rocks') existed

Here: Found! Hidden Ocean Locked Up Deep in Earth's Mantle

Apparently all the water in the layer equals all the water in the ocean!

As for water in the early solar system

Well if you think about it - at the orbit of the Earth and further in, water should be in that solid/liquid phase - depending on conditions (and rapidly, going a closer in) becomes gaseous, making it ridiculously easy for the sun to push out/break apart and expel from the inner solar system

Also, for any water still trapped in little bits of rock, and for the reason they say comets and asteroids must have been part of the process that gave us surface water, it is because Earth and the components that came before it must have been through many phases of being molten rock - as they collided together and combined. Now that will not cause all water to go - clearly some may have been baked in - but it would cause a lot to be evaporated where - the effect of the young sun will be to strip a lot of this H20 into space away from it's original bodies, hence should leave the inner solar system pretty dry.

Then time went by, the great number of ice-rich bodies that existed in the outer solar system, which was the 'natural' place for ice bodies to form, were disturbed by Jupiter and the other big planets etc... i.e causing the Great Bombardment and it is this action of numerous comets and asteroids displaced by the outer solar system that is guessed to be the water that found a much cooler Earth and thus was able to exist in liquid/solid form on the surface.

Mind you just because you find water deep down does not mean it was 'origin' water - there is a mechanism for water to get very deep - plate tectonics.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Here is a description of the process that a very hot astronomical body with water is likely to lose water to space i.e. a model for the early hot Earth:

Where Venus' Water Went

(although it does depend on the planet having a weak magnetic field - who knows what sort of field the early Earth had?)

 

[J Riff]

The one under the Kalahari is biiiig, too. Most of the biomass of Earth lives in deep water with no light.

 

[BAYLOR]

As I understand it ,we got all of our water from impacts of comments from outer space.

 

[RJM Corbet]

Water is H2O which can form at any time from combination of the two elements -- in fact explosively: try STOP them combining. (At any time in the earth's history, including right now when you burn a candle). Liquid water is confined to a narrow temperature band, but supercold ice/super hot steam are also H2O. Am interested? Just asking?

 

[ErikB]

As I understand it ,we got all of our water from impacts of comments from outer space.

What sort of comments? LOL

 

[ErikB]

Water comes from multiple sources. Both ice impact from space borne objects, and the combination of gas (Hydrogen and oxygen) on a molecular level.

Finding seeps, lakes, and seas that are subterranean do not necessarily indicate the presence of water at the planet's formation as much as the ability of water to permeate shifting pockets in the tectonic plates and geological access.

But water is a powerful and persistent element that finds a way or forges its own path. I think that these discoveries of water en mass beneath the surface aquifers and crust are fascinating and a true testament to the power of water.

 

[RJM Corbet]

What sort of comments? LOL

Peanuts from the comment gallery?