The Origins of Water on Earth
Introduction
What is Water?
Water also known as H20 is a chemical compound composed of molecules that are comprised of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. In its purest form, it is a transparent liquid that is colourless, odourless and tasteless.
It is the single most abundant substance found on earth, covering around 70% of the Earth’s surface with an estimated 1.386 billion cubic kilometres (333 million cubic miles) of water on Earth.
The oceans contain around 96% of all water on earth, ice caps, glaciers & permanent snow 1.74 %, groundwater 1.69%, with the remaining 0.03% existing in soil moisture, ground ice & permafrost, lakes, the atmosphere, swamp water, rivers and in animals and humans as biological water.
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/how-much-water-there-earth
The Importance of Water on Earth
Liquid water is essential to life on planet earth as we know it.
All life on Earth is separated from the environment by a semi-permeable membrane, which facilitates the intake of important materials required for energy production while blocking out toxic substances such as waste products. This process is what keeps living organisms alive.
Water plays an essential role in this process, the earth-like temperature and flow of water provide an efficient way to transfer substances into and out of cells.
Water is known as the universal solvent, it cannot dissolve everything but does dissolve more substances that any other liquid due to the way the molecules it is comprised of are bonded together.
Water has a polarity, the hydrogen atoms tend to gather on one side of the molecule creating a positive charge with the oxygen atom on the other end creating a negative one. The positively charged hydrogen atoms attract negatively charged atoms while the negatively charged oxygen atoms attract positively charged atoms. This makes water an amazing solvent and a perfect medium for the transportation of nutrients, regulation of body temperature, assisting in the digestion process to the flushing of waste from the body.
https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/water-universal-solvent
The human body is comprised of around 60% water and we can only survive without water for roughly 3 days.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325174
When we think of the importance of water in our everyday lives we may only think of the direct use cases, such as for drinking, cooking, bathing etc. It is important to note that water used in direct-use instances comprises only a small percentage of the water used on any given day when compared to indirect uses. The many indirect uses include such things as its use in agriculture, industry and manufacturing.
https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/other/index.html
Throughout its life cycle on earth water can exist in three different states, as a gas, liquid or solid and involves various processes such as evapotranspiration, condensation, precipitation, runoff, snow and ice melt.
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LIFE CYCLE OF WATER ON EARTH CLICK HERE
Whilst there is no debate surrounding the importance of liquid water to life on earth as we know it or the life cycle of water on earth the same can not be said for its origins.
The Origins of Water on Earth
We are surrounded by so much water that it is easy to take it for granted whilst neglecting the fact that as of this moment in time Earth is the only known planet or moon to have liquid water on its surface on a consistent basis and in a stable manner with the vast majority being without.
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/et-oceans.html
Water molecules are comprised of two elements, Hydrogen and Oxygen.
Hydrogen is the simplest of all elements and the oldest, it has been around since almost the beginning of the universe, whereas oxygen wasn’t created until several hundred million years later after the formation of stars.
In the centre of stars, the massive amount of pressure fused hydrogen atoms together which created helium, the helium atoms were fused together under this pressure to form heavier elements such as beryllium, carbon and oxygen in a process referred to as nucleosynthesis.
https://www.scienceabc.com/nature/universe/how-were-the-elements-created.html
Over time these stars collapsed and exploded into supernovas, spreading these elements across the universe where these elements combined into new compounds such as H20 aka water.
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/8-ways-elements-made/
These H20 molecules were present in the dust clouds that formed our solar system and more collided with our planet after its formation.
The water we use in our day-to-day lives did not just come from our taps, or from an aquifer, lake, river or sea, or even our atmosphere, it first underwent a chaotic journey through space and time.
The exact origins of water on planet earth and the when and how of its arrival is a hotly debated topic amongst the scientific community.
Does the water on earth come from its initial formation, later impacts or a combination of both?
It is an important question as an exact answer would give us a greater understanding of when life as we know it began on Earth and would also aid us in our search for life on other planets.
Ancient sedimentary rock deposits such as a sample of pillow basalt (a type of rock formed during an underwater eruption) amongst others provide irrefutable evidence that liquid water has been present on the surface of the earth for at least 3.8 billion years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_water_on_Earth
Water on Earth Originated From Outer Space versus Water on Earth Has Existed Since its Formation
It is argued that if water was present on earth during its formation, the high temperatures and lack of surrounding atmosphere would have resulted in it evaporating or being blown off into space.
The main point put forward under this hypothesis is that water would simply not have been able to exist on earth until 100’s of millions of years after its formation when its atmosphere was created by a process called outgassing, which was caused by the molten rock in the earth's core releasing volcanic gasses to the surface which created a layer that could then trap water vapour.
https://phys.org/news/2014-10-oceans-early-earth.html
As a result one of the most popular theories amongst the scientific community is that H20 was deposited on Earth during collisions with extraterrestrial ice-bearing comets or asteroids that occurred over millions of years.
A study conducted in 1974 added weight to this argument as it was discovered that the earth's mantle contained more precious metals such as platinum and ruthenium than would have been expected. As these elements are naturally attracted to iron, it is thought that most of them were pulled into the planet’s iron core early in its history.
This led to the “late veneer” hypothesis. This proposes that an additional layer on earth was created due to violent impacts with asteroids. It is thought that volatile substances such as carbon and water which are known to exist on asteroids called carbonaceous chondrite were also deposited during these collisions.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37276218
However, a study conducted in 2017 has revealed that the type of ruthenium (one of the elements that are attracted to Iron) contained within the earth's mantle has a different atomic signature to those found in asteroids that exist in the outer solar system. The implication of this is that the late veneer would have had to have been caused by a collision with an asteroid or comet from within our inner solar system, where volatile substances are much rarer, therefore making them an unlikely main source of water on Earth adding weight to the argument that water on earth was abundant before the late veneer.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28128236/
In a recent study, scientists found that carbonaceous chondrite meteorites that formed shortly after the birth of our solar system contained water, in addition to finding out that their chemical composition matched the chemical composition of rocks on earth and samples taken from an asteroid that formed at roughly the same time as our planet.
https://astronomy.com/magazine/2019/04/where-did-earths-water-come-from
There is evidence to suggest that Zircons, the oldest minerals on earth, were crystallized from magma sources encountering liquid water which brings into question the final veneer hypothesis. Zircons s are estimated to be between 4.1 and 4.3 billion years old which predates the final veneer which is thought to have occurred around 3.9 billion years ago.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-earth-rocks-sediment-first-life-zircon
The Sudbury basin in Ontario, Canada. created as a result of a collision with an extraterrestrial object, is the third-largest known impact crater on Earth, as well as one of the oldest.
A recent study of the impact crater in Sudbury, Canada that was created as the result of an asteroid collision has revealed evidence that suggests it may have vaporised most of the volatile metal lead implying that the same would have occurred to more volatile compounds such as water. Earth, as opposed to gaining matter, may have actually lost it during such events in a process known as impact erosion which further brings into question the hypothesis that water's existence on earth is the result of impacts with asteroids or comets.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/10/021028072337.htm
The amount of chlorine on earth is also something that is considered noteworthy. If chlorine did not have liquid water to dissolve into, it wouldn’t have had anything to prevent it from being lost to space. In addition, geochemists have long argued that the Earth’s oceans do not come from icy comets as they contain different amounts of “heavy” hydrogen to those found during research.
Scientists studying the formation of diamonds deep underground have produced new evidence that suggests minerals deep within the earth's mantle could contain water adding further weight to the theory that the surface water on earth came deep from within.
https://www.bnl.gov/newsroom/news.php?a=111648
All of the above information leads to the implication that a substantial amount of water existed on earth from early on in its formation, and it was somehow able to retain it in spite of the high temperatures and the lack of atmosphere,
The conclusion is that Earth’s surface water came from within its mantle, in the form of hydrogen and oxygen atoms trapped within minerals. When the mantle rock melts, the water dissolves into the magma, as the magma reaches the earth's surface, it cools, pressure is reduced, crystals form and the water is released and emitted as vapour through volcanoes.
If this is true, life on earth could have begun much earlier than we originally thought, forcing us to reconsider the origins of life on Earth as we know it
Conclusion
As there is no definitive conclusion, the origin of water on Earth will continue to be a subject matter heavily researched and debated in the fields of planetary science, astronomy, and astrobiology.
Whilst there may not be universal agreement over its origins, there is no denying the lifecycle it undertakes whilst on Earth or the important role it plays in our everyday lives in a huge number of ways, both direct and indirect, including but not limited to agriculture, industry, manufacturing, sanitation and perhaps most important of all for drinking.
Water is essential for life and plays a vital role in the human body. It helps to regulate body temperature, transport nutrients, and remove waste. Without water, the body would not be able to function properly. This is why it is so important to know the quality of your source water.
Water comes into contact with all manner of potentially harmful contaminants both organic and inorganic, naturally occurring and man made throughout its lifecycle on Earth which is why it is so important to speak to an expert and invest in the right water filtration technologies for your home.
Water filtration technologies are an essential part of ensuring that your drinking water is safe and free from contaminants.
YOUR HEALTH IS YOUR WEALTH
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