
Massive ‘ocean’ discovered towards Earth’s core (2014) - RazzleBerryPop
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25723-massive-ocean-discovered-towards-earths-core/
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ComputerGuru
I 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
Absolutely, 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.

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ta1234567890
It'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.

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Iv
Can we please stop calling humid rocks "ocean"?

There is a word for that: aquifer.

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onion2k
Aquifer doesn't convey any sense of scale, and that's the important part in
the article. "Scientists discover aquifer" wouldn't be interesting.

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Iv
"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.

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onion2k
Headlines 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.

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dang
Discussed (not particularly well) at the time:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7885641](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7885641)

~~~
gus_massa
One 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-v...](https://water.usgs.gov/edu/pictures/full-size/global-water-
> volume-fresh-large.jpg) ._

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mc32
I 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.

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jiri
Is it possible that similar deposits of this rock ringwoodite are present in
under the surface or in cores of other planets?

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gus_massa
IANAG. 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/m...](https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-
mars/a14470646/marss-ocean-may-have-descended-into-the-mantle-of-the-planet/)

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josephcs
Additional read from ScientificAmerican (2014):
[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-
conf...](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rare-diamond-confirms-
that-earths-mantle-holds-an-oceans-worth-of-water/)

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TomK32
It'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.

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curious72
I 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

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markdown
The "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
Indeed, 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.

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prawn
In case you haven't read it:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth)

~~~
lostlogin
Thank you for that. The bit about the flooding of the Persian Gulf is
fascinating.

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elwell
Another 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).

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hobs
Why does the book get all the points for the things it gets right without
getting points detracted for what it gets wrong?

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completelylegit
We need to understand. We search for patterns.

Not knowing is an ache that forces some to look and convinces others to stop
looking.

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hobs
Certainly, the search for meaning is the most fundamental human attribute
after survival.

However, we tend to be fine for the search for bullshit.

