Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia

National Geographic ^ | 2-27-2007 | Richard A Lovett

[blam]

Huge Underground "Ocean" Found Beneath Asia

Richard A. Lovett
for National Geographic News

February 27, 2007

A giant blob of water the size of the Arctic Ocean has been discovered hundreds of miles beneath eastern Asia, scientists report.

Researchers found the underground "ocean" while scanning seismic waves as they passed through Earth's interior.

But nobody will be exploring this sea by submarine. The water is locked in moisture-containing rocks 400 to 800 miles (700 to 1,400 kilometers) beneath the surface.

"I've gotten all sorts of emails asking if this is the water that burst out in Noah's flood," said the leader of the research team, Michael Wysession of Washington University in St. Louis.

"It isn't an ocean. [The water] is a very low percentage [of the rock], probably less than 0.1 percent."

Given the region's size, however, that's enough to add up to a vast amount of water.

Earthquakes Reveal "Ocean"

Wysession and former graduate student Jesse Lawrence discovered the damp spot by observing how seismic waves from distant earthquakes pass through Earth's mantle.

The wet zone, which runs from Indonesia to the northern tip of Russia, showed up as an area of relatively weak rock, causing the seismic waves to lose strength much more rapidly than elsewhere (see map of Asia.)

[Bernard Marx]

Just want to return a "Thanks!" to you for all the hard work you do on this list. It's appreciated.

[SunkenCiv]

My pleasure.

[lepton]

if that wouldnt have happened gravity would crush him to a pretty small size

Past a fairly shallow point, the effect of gravity would sustantially lessen, as the mass above him would begin to counter the effects of the mass below. Atmospheric pressure would become extreme though, and that might crush him.

[Conservative4Ever]

It might give 'surfs up' a whole new meaning. :)

[advertising guy]

lmao

(I deleted my comments 5 times)

[NicknamedBob]

"How has that been going lately?"


I seem to like underground chambers as a literary device, complete with carved cities, streets, and fountains and gardens.

The lakes, of course, will tend to be quite placid, hardly stirring unless one uses them as heat dumps and so forth.

Still, if you're recycling at all, you can have circulation, and if it's worth it, you can even make waves.

In most cases, it's for privacy and security, but in this instance, it's to avoid harsh weather.

... at the moment, another intriguing mystery confronted her. She stood and walked to the window. Beyond the gently moving curtains in the soft warm air, a bright countryside was revealed. What had happened to Winter?

M drew the curtains aside. The small ledge of the windowsill yielded to a graceful parapet with a stone railing. Beyond that, T could see that what she had taken for a view of open countryside was actually an immense chamber, brilliantly lit by artificial sunlight coming from above.

The room she was in was carved into the solid mountain they had burrowed through in the long walk from the banquet chamber. T saw that other windows faced out of the mountain in carved simulations of towering buildings reaching up to an immense arch glowing with a soft blue light.

A city inside a mountain! On the rooftops of the lower buildings, small gardens and plazas could be seen. At “street” level, broad boulevards were filled with pedestrians and small carts of produce and other goods. In the distance, fields and orchards suggested crops growing in abundance.

“So this is how you survive your harsh Winters! You create your own Summer!”

M nodded. “This is one of many thousands of such sanctuaries. Initially, they were the heavily defended interiors of clan fortresses. On the outside, they still bear that resemblance. However, almost all of the shelters are tied to the adjacent ones through long transportation tunnels."

"If you wish to travel to other parts of the homeworld, that is a very comfortable way to do it, although it takes a bit of time to go any distance. Our people go on holiday excursions that way.”

[Old Professer]

What if it isn't water at all but oil?

[blam]

"What if it isn't water at all but oil?"

That crossed my mind too, lol.

[NicknamedBob]

"What if it isn't water at all but oil?"

It would be the equivalent of shale oil.

In fact, it probably is the equivalent of shale water.

[aft_lizard]

Yeah I really should have said pressure rather than gravity, I believe at the center you have something on the magnitude of 14 or so million times surface pressure.

[LibWhacker]

I remember that, too. In fact, didn't he predict that the Earth's oceans would completely drain away within the next 100 - 200 million years?

[ValerieTexas]

http://www.usmsfp.org/farm-websites/texas%20news/seafoodwithoutthesea.htm

[SunkenCiv]

Texas is synonymous with large, so I can't get into farmed shrimp from there. ;') Maybe I'm just being shellfish.

[ValerieTexas]

GROAN

[SunkenCiv]

I was crustacean the cheapest shot I could find. ;')

[Steve Van Doorn]

Earth's Interior

I thought this might give some perspective to what maybe causing this. It looks as though there might be another large moist lava body under Africa and under Hawaii area.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks.

[NicknamedBob]

That upper illustration is the strangest thing I’ve seen in some time.

If I read the “surface” features accurately, the center of the Earth should be about one third of the way down whatever that is supposed to represent.

[ovrtaxt]

Yep...and Cyndi Lauper was obviously lying when she said that she "has a hole in her heart that goes all the way to China".

YOU LEAVE CINDY ALONE!!!!! IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH CINDY, YOU GO THROUGH ME!! ALL YOU PEOPLE CARE ABOUT IS MAKING MONEY OFF OF HER!

SHE'S A HUMAN BEEEEEINGGGG!!!

[SunkenCiv]

;’D