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Massive ‘ocean’ discovered towards Earth’s core (2014)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dang 7y agoDiscussed (not particularly well) at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7885641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7885641
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gus_massa 7y agoOne interesting comment in that thread by 31reasons: > This image will give you more idea of how much water there is on the surface in terms of spherical volume. https://water.usgs.gov/edu/pictures/full-size/global-water-volume-fresh-large.jpg https://water.usgs.gov/edu/pictures/full-size/global-water-v... .
- mc32 7y agoI wonder if this adds to the understanding of plate tectonics. Adds another dimension or is so far removed from the crust it has little bearing on them.
- curious72 7y agoI wonder if this be related to the biblical flood story: <quote> on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. </quote> Genesis 7:11
- markdown 7y agoThe "ocean" is in fact solid rock permeated with water. Even under immense pressure, the water only trickles out of this rock. Genesis is a collection of myths.
- jacobush 7y agoIndeed, but there have been many floods in the area. I think a lot of what is saved in writing and stories has some basis in fact. Sometimes I even wonder if tales of trolls (and similar creatures in various cultures) can be Neanderthals etc.
- elwell 7y agoWhat ocean are you referring to?
- markdown 7y agoThe one in OP's title "Massive ‘ocean’ discovered"
- gboone 7y ago> Genesis is a collection of myths. Which one is the myth-iest in your opinion?
- Iv 7y agoMany translations do not talk about "windows" but about "floodgates". The authors of the bible were from a culture whose cosmology interpreted the blue sky as an ocean and believed it could be poured on the earth.
- lurquer 7y agoCite? (Apparently we are of a culture that believes water molecules trapped in certain minerals constitutes an ‘ocean.’)
- mamon 7y agoThe most interesting theory I read recently is that biblical flood referes to an event that happened 5600 BC, when melting ice from the last little ice age caused water from Medditerrain Sea to flood through Bosfor, significantly increasing the size of Black Sea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sea_deluge_hypothesis There is however a lot of controversy around this theory.
- ComputerGuru 7y agoI know it was mostly nonsense, but Jules Vernes’ Journey to the Center of the Earth enchanted me to no end and sent my mind imagining such undiscovered wonders, including, yes, oceans within massive caverns miles below the crust. That man was such an incredible, creative storyteller.
- ehnto 7y agoAbsolutely, one of my all time favourites. It was so delightfully imaginative and yet knowing it was tied to the science of the era made for a completely new world view while reading it.
- elwell 7y agoAnother instance of the scientific community converging to a consensus congruent with the Genesis account of creation. Genesis 2:5-6 "the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth ... but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground." Two other notable instances: the universe had a beginning (a Big Bang) and evolution occurred generally in the order described in Genesis 1 (nothing, plants, water creatures, avians, land animals, humans). An old story not transgressing truth (truths that are being progressively discovered in more detail) should not be easily ignored. Though it is indeed a story for a spiritual purpose, not one meant to match the contemporaneous description of observations. If it were, it would be outdated (or too ahead of the times to be understandable or acceptable at all).
- krastanov 7y agoThe vagueness of the text and selection bias seem like more reasonable explanations of your observations, independently of the spiritual or ethical value of that particular work.
- hobs 7y agoWhy does the book get all the points for the things it gets right without getting points detracted for what it gets wrong?
- zaroth 7y agoTwice a day my clock is not only right, it is, in fact, the most accurate clock ever created.
- completelylegit 7y agoWe need to understand. We search for patterns. Not knowing is an ache that forces some to look and convinces others to stop looking.
- hobs 7y agoCertainly, the search for meaning is the most fundamental human attribute after survival. However, we tend to be fine for the search for bullshit.
- cellular 7y agoI had a theory that the reason glaciers can melt, but the ocean doesn't rise is because the land is floating on water. Much like a melting ice cube in a glass of water won't raise the level in the glass. This is BIG news. (Pun intended)
- Iv 7y agoCan we please stop calling humid rocks "ocean"? There is a word for that: aquifer.
- onion2k 7y agoAquifer doesn't convey any sense of scale, and that's the important part in the article. "Scientists discover aquifer" wouldn't be interesting.
- Iv 7y ago"Scientists discover aquifer the size of the Pacific ocean" And I would like to say that "interesting" should be lower on the list of priority than "accurate" when it comes to headlines.
- onion2k 7y agoHeadlines are marketing. They get people to buy the magazine or view the online adverts. If you want strict accuracy without the sales element you need to go to a journal.
- gus_massa 7y agoThe real thing is even more different than an ocean. In an aquifer you have something like wet sand or wet rocks, i.e. there is sand/rocks and the water is in the space between them. In this case, the molecules of water are inside the crystal structure. It's almost like a chemical reaction instead of only some inert object getting wet. An usual similar compound is Cooper Sulfate that is nice because it changes color. The anhydrous version is white and you can get it heating the normal version. The normal version is blue and it has 5 water molecules per each CuSO4. But it is not wet like wet sand/rocks, the water is trapped inside he crystals. I can't find a good link but there is more info in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper(II)_sulfate#Other_form_of_copper_sulfatesand https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper(II)_sulfate#Other_form_... there are some nice photos in https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=copper+sulfate+color+anhydrous https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=copper+sulfate+colo...
- TomK32 7y agoIt's quite logical, if there were small rocks with water hitting later Earth then those small rocks with water must have hit early Earth as well; thus water was part of Earth from the beginning and it simply got entrapped when Earth grew.
- ta1234567890 7y agoIt's sad to see so much hate in the comments. It would be amazing if there were more discussions with genuine curiosity rather than a dismissive attitude of intellectual superiority. Unfortunately words can only express so much. Fascinating discovery by the way. Makes me realize how much there always is to learn and discover despite how much we already know.
- josephcs 7y agoAdditional read from ScientificAmerican (2014): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-confirms-that-earths-mantle-holds-an-oceans-worth-of-water/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-conf...
- jiri 7y agoIs it possible that similar deposits of this rock ringwoodite are present in under the surface or in cores of other planets?
- gus_massa 7y agoIANAG. Probably yes because the elements in these rocks are quite common, but I guess the difficult part is guessing how much water these rocks are trapping in each planet. But I found in Google one interesting link: "Mars' Ocean May Have Descended Into the Mantle of the Planet" https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a14470646/marss-ocean-may-have-descended-into-the-mantle-of-the-planet/ https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a14470646/m...