Oceans beneath the Earth's surface

It's an interesting idea. It to me, the non-scientist, sounds more viable than the idea of asteroids supplying our Earth with such a large amount of water.

For those who haven't read these reports, here's a link to an article in Phys.Org where this idea was suggested earlier in March this year:
http://phys.org/news/2014-03-water-rich-gem-vast-oceans-beneath.html

The more recent report appears in New Scientist speaking about these discoveries in more depth:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25723-massive-ocean-discovered-towards-earths-core.html#.U6idbxaHuIw

Other moons in our solar system are thought to have underwater oceans so why not our Earth?

Christina

An interesting development, one that appears to have merit. I must look to see if there has been a paper written.

Mike do you want to make this a new thread, not sure how to do it?

Look at this link:-

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc ="s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCQQqQIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.extremetech.com%2Fextreme%2F184564-scientists-discover-an-ocean-400-miles-beneath-our-feet-that-could-fill-our-oceans-three-times-over&ei=06OoU-HpAqGr0gX504G4Aw&usg=AFQjCNFNkCJ8xSta2L7rfjy9F-tlpaF9vQ&sig2=sNCT1KYbx7Jlgm9PQPOWdg"

Interested to hear others thoughts.

Brian

Topic split

Thanks Mike

That was fascinating reading (both articles), thanks Christina.

I loved the comet theory but this new theory is equally cool and I like how it explains the uniformity of our ocean volume over the eons of time. Another beautiful natural Earth machinery, the "middle Earth" reservoir that we potentially owe our existence to.

the pressures and temperatures are just right to squeeze the water out of the ringwoodite.

I believe HMRC are studying this very closely, to see if it helps them to really get blood out of a stone.

I've always found the comet theory somewhat extraordinary. My mind immediately tries to imagine how many water-bearing comets you would need to strike the earth in order to fill up the oceans. Presumably the mechanism is that the comet strike vaporises the water it's carrying, which then forms part of the atmosphere and eventually falls as precipitation.

Having said that, the idea that the oceans have been squeezed out of the earth seems even more bizarre. I always assumed the oceans on other moons lay beneath a frozen surface, not buried underneath a rocky layer. Images of volcanic water-spouts come to mind.

Hey - hang on!

I've never been comfortable with the "comet" theory for water on the surface of the Earth... not least because it doesn't seem to be backed up by observational evidence.

As far as I know (and I'm happy to be contradicted) most of the analysis of the chemical composition of comets has shown that comets contain much more deuterium (i.e. heavy hydrogen) than is present in the Earth's oceans. If the presence of water on the Earth was due to comets, surely we would expect to see the same or similar amounts of deuterium in the oceans?

I know there have been one or two exceptions to this (e.g. Comet Hartley), but for the majority of observations, there is far too much deuterium present. The theory seems to hinge on a proposition that Kuiper Belt comets like Hartley contain less deuterium than Oort Cloud comets (which have provided the data for the majority of the deuterium analysis so far). However, I've seen no evidence that this proposition is holding true... unless I've missed something recently.

That the water may have already been present when the Earth was formed seems a far more likely theory to me.

Mike

The deuterium issue has always been a question mark over the comet/asteroid theory. The underground ocean makes more sense especially when you think of how many springs are there that percolate up from underground. So you can see over time that water could percolate up from deep in the earth. Further there are many water reservoirs that have been found underground way below the water course.

Water percolating up to the surface would soon become part of the water cycle leading to precipitation across the planet.

I always assumed the oceans on other moons lay beneath a frozen surface, not buried underneath a rocky layer.

From what I've understood in reading about oceans on other moons, the frozen surface behaves as rock would on Earth so with this in mind, it would imply that it is similar to being buried under a rocky layer. That's my understanding anyway.

Just on a side note, I think that "Middle Earth Reservoir" that Taj suggested would make a great (computer) game title!

Found this on twitter :- http://t.co/wSdDscIS3x

About size of solar system.

Christina

That certainly is my understanding, makes sense to me. Obviously further research is needed. I have search for papers on it but have found none as of yet. This could be an interesting topic for the society programme when more evidence and info is available.

Yes, definitely sounds like an area that needs further research. JIMO was a mission that sadly didn't go ahead but would have explored Jupiter's icy moons.

The OU have a piece that you might be interested in reading:
http://www.open.edu/openlearn/science-maths-technology/science/physics-and-astronomy/icy-bodies-europa-and-elsewhere/content-section-2.6

Maybe Nasa read Arthur C Clarke's 2010: Odyssey Two: "All these worlds are yours - except Europa. Attempt no landings there."