The earth is a rocky planet, which was born 4.6 billion years ago. Soon after the birth of the earth, there was a lot of liquid water, and water is the source of life. It was with the existence of a lot of liquid water that early life was born, and then there was the process of continuous evolution of life, and finally the birth of human beings.
It can be said that water is a very important material for life on earth. Most organisms, including human beings, 70% of the material in the body tissue is water. The water resources on the earth’s surface account for 71% of the global area, which shows that the amount of water on the earth is very huge.
In the past many people’s cognition, water is only a large amount of material on the earth’s surface. Due to the existence of high temperature and high pressure, there will not be a lot of water resources in the earth’s interior. Especially when it comes to the mantle layer, it is basically high temperature liquid lava, and it is unlikely that there will be water.
However, with the continuous research and exploration of scientists, it is found that people’s cognition in the past may be completely wrong. The earth’s interior not only has water, but also has more reserves than the surface. On November 14, 2018, scientists published a very important discovery about the earth’s water resources in the journal Nature. Through seismological instruments, scientists studied the seismic data of the Mariana Trench, and came to a conclusion that a large amount of water flowing into the earth is happening near the Mariana Trench.
Moreover, according to the research of scientists, the phenomenon of large amount of water flowing into the earth’s interior in the Mariana Trench may have appeared a long time ago, and it may have existed for more than tens of thousands of years. Moreover, this phenomenon of large amount of sea water flowing into the earth’s interior may not only occur in the Mariana Trench, but also in other parts of the earth’s oceans.
The reason why scientists focus on the phenomenon of water flowing into the earth’s interior in the Mariana Trench is that it is the deepest part of the ocean and the place closest to the crust and mantle. The water from here not only flows into the earth’s crust, but also possibly into the deep mantle. Scientists believe that this kind of thing is not unique to the Mariana Trench, this phenomenon has always been, accompanied by the origin of water and the evolution of the ocean. This is a normal geological phenomenon.
Some people may have said that if this kind of phenomenon has existed since ancient times, and a large number of sea water continuously flows into the earth’s interior, will the water on the earth’s surface disappear one day? In fact, there is no need to worry about this. As long as we understand the principle of a large amount of sea water flowing into the earth’s interior, we don’t have to worry about the continuous decrease of water on the surface.
To solve this mystery, we need to have an understanding of the origin of the earth’s early water. I believe many people know that the early stage of the earth’s formation was actually a huge fireball with very high temperature. At that time, the earth was not as peaceful and beautiful as it is now. It was a big fireball like purgatory. This is what any planet looked like when it was formed in the early days. Whether it was the earth or other planets, it was a big fireball in the early days.
Since it is a big fireball, it is impossible for water to exist. So where did the water come from? Scientists have put forward three possibilities for the source of a large amount of water in the early stage of the earth. One is from the earth itself. As we all know, matter is composed of various elements, and liquid water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
The raw materials for the formation of the earth contain hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements, and the elements for the formation of water are all available. At this time, these basic elements hydration with the nebular material and are temporarily stored in minerals. Because of the high temperature of the early Earth, the water formed water vapor and distributed in all corners of the earth.
With the passage of time, the temperature of the earth is also falling, and then the water vapor condenses into water droplets, and then the earth begins a heavy rain for millions or even tens of millions of years. After the heavy rain, the surface of the earth was covered with a lot of liquid water. Another source is the constant impact of asteroids and comets.
As we all know, many asteroids and comets carry a lot of ice crystals. After they hit the earth, they will also bring a lot of water to the earth. The last one is from volcanic eruption, which brings out a large amount of water vapor locked in rocks inside the earth. It can be seen that the earth’s water resources not only exist on the earth’s surface, but also are sequestered in the earth’s internal rocks.
So why does water from the earth’s surface keep flowing into the earth’s interior? This phenomenon is actually a kind of heat convection. As we all know, the earth is divided into crust, mantle and core. The crust is the thinnest rock solid layer connecting the earth’s surface, and the crust can be divided into continental crust and oceanic crust. The continental crust is light and thick, while the oceanic crust is heavy and thin.
Under the crust is a very hot and very viscous mantle. The mantle is a high-temperature region, which is basically viscous liquid rock and other materials. They have been flowing slowly. The high-temperature flow of the mantle forms a kind of thermal convection with the crust. Under this effect, the sea water in the nearest ocean connecting the crust will continue to fall, some of which will be injected into the crust and some into the mantle.
Some people may say, can seawater still exist after flowing into the mantle? You know, it’s a hot area. Yes, once the sea water flows into the mantle, it cannot exist as surface water. However, the water does not disappear out of thin air, but forms hydrated minerals with the material in the mantle under certain high temperature and high pressure, and exists in the mantle in another form.
The same is true of the water in the crust. They will also be continuously integrated into minerals. According to scientists’ research, this hydrated rock is 30 kilometers deep and has huge water content. It is estimated that about 3000 trillion tons of water will be brought into the mantle. A lot of water resources are stored in the crust and mantle. These water resources will not easily return to the earth at ordinary times, but if there is a violent crustal movement, such as volcanic eruption, they will be brought back to the surface to enrich the surface water resources.
It can be seen that the earth’s water cycle is not only the cycle of the sky and the earth, but also the water cycle of the surface and the earth. The amount of water stored in the earth’s interior may be far beyond our imagination. I believe many friends have heard of the legend of prehistoric floods. Although in many people’s eyes, this ancient flood is only a legend, after a lot of research by scientists, it is found that the ancient flood may be real.
If there had been a global flood a long time ago, most of the land would have been drowned. So where’s the excess water that could trigger such a global flood? We should know that the current liquid water resources on the earth’s surface are unlikely to cause global floods, and the water resources needed are enormous.
At this time, someone thought of a large amount of water inside the earth. If long ago, the earth released a large amount of water resources inside the earth due to unknown reasons (probably plate movement), which led to a global flood. Later, a large amount of groundwater poured into the earth’s surface returned to the earth’s interior, and the global flood ended.
Of course, there is no definite answer to the cause of prehistoric floods, because there is another possibility to trigger such floods, that is, the global melting of glaciers. Once all glaciers in the north and south poles melt, the sea level rise of more than 50 meters will be enough to trigger global floods. In any case, we now understand that the earth has far more water resources than we see now.
For the reserves of water resources inside the earth, at present we have no good method to detect, the only thing we can rely on is seismic wave. And the result of seismic wave detection is only a very fuzzy data. If we want to know more about it, we have to wait for human science and technology to go further. With stronger drilling equipment, we can go deep into the crust and mantle to understand it on the spot.
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