Posted on 11/01/2025 6:27:35 AM PDT by Red Badger
I did ponder that years ago.
Curious that it took so long for them to figure it out.
The comet theory always struck me as lazy.
It would have taken million and millions of comets to fill the oceans....................
Yeah, me too. I can’t imagine how many unlucky comets it would take to equal the water on this planet. When I took Chemistry in high school, we had a week-long session on how to construct a filter to get pure water. On the exam the next week, the teacher asked us how to get pure water. I was suppose to construct this elaborate filter, but instead I said: “Burn hydrogen.” The teacher was visibly PO’ed, but gave me full credit.
That it was unlikely to yield the consequent mass is also concerning, especially under solar bombardment.
Yet if I recall, they had stats and logical arguments that supported icy meteorites ocean formation hypothesis as well.
From what I dimly remember is they can tell the meteorite composition by looking at its spectra as it falls through the atmosphere , heats and becomes incandescent. Many of them are made of all or partly frozen water.
Then they used math… number per year falling x so many billion years x estimated mass average= total water. And it was a LOT.
Maybe both theories are valid?
“Burn hydrogen.”
LOL, but you may be exactly correct. In the beginning there was an abundance of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. All it would take is a spark to combine the two into water.........
This is news? I learned the oceans were formed this way 40 years ago in geology class.
I learned the oceans were formed a different way in the 60’s in Sunday School................
No wonder I’m always pissing and having backaches: my kidneys are full of magma and hydrogen.
GROK says this is the latest guess:
“ Current Scientific Consensus (2025)Theory
Contribution
Status
Outgassing from lava/mantle
~20–40% of total water (early Earth)
Important, but not the main source
Icy asteroids & comets (late veneer)
~60–80% of total water
Dominant modern view
Why the Shift?1. Deuterium-to-Hydrogen (D/H) RatioEarth’s oceans: D/H ≈ 1.5 × 10⁻⁴
Outgassed water from Earth’s mantle: D/H ≈ 1.2–1.4 × 10⁻⁴ → close, but slightly too low
Carbonaceous chondrites (icy asteroids): D/H ≈ 1.4–1.6 × 10⁻⁴ → perfect match
Comets: D/H often 2–3× higher → too deuterium-rich (except some Jupiter-family comets like 67P)
Conclusion: Water chemically matches asteroids, not comets or purely mantle sources.
2. Noble Gases & TimingOutgassing happened early (during magma ocean phase, <100 Myr after formation).
But noble gases (Ne, Ar, Xe) in the atmosphere require late delivery by impacts — outgassing alone can’t explain them.
Icy planetesimals delivered both water and volatiles after the Moon-forming impact.
3. Zircon Evidence (Oldest Crystals)4.4-billion-year-old zircons show liquid water existed very early → some primordial water was present or outgassed.
But volume increased later via impacts.
As I've gotten older, I must have accumulated some magma somewhere in my torso.
It should be noted that small comets deliver water to the Earth 'round the clock, and over the period of Earth's existence that amount is more than sufficient to fill the oceans, particularly since the rate of arrival has probably declined.
Not all the Earth's Water Came From Comets [11/10/2018]
I’ll take it’s a guess Alex for 50
LOL & smh
No excuse for being POd at a student thinking outside the box.
But that’s just my non-lefty trained, scientific mind speaking. /s
Like the "fossil fuel" from dinosaurs and plants theory. Except it doesn't explain Titan's methane lakes. Now they can go figure out how all that crude oil got in the ground and is more being made every day.
Agreed, you have hydrogen and oxygen so is it so far fetched to believe there is a mechanism to make water from that
Like wise the idea that oil comes from decaying organic matter never made sense to me, coal maybe, but not oil in the quantity it exists ans the depths it is found
Lakes of hydrocarbons on Jupiter’s moon, from dead dinosaurs😂
And where did the water in the comets come from🤔 with that theory
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