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The Hunt for Earth’s Deep Hidden Oceans (quantamagazine.org)
83 points by jdnier on July 22, 2018 | hide | past | favorite | 11 comments



Stephen Baxter wrote an apocalyptic novel "Flood" about what happens if these oceans leak to the surface.


I'm afraid 'Flood' really annoyed me. The US Govt response was twofold: 1) start a starship programme and 2) make a deep underwater base for govt officials. Not the obvious 'build lots of boats'.

And in a standard Baxter plot theme, the starship is then hijacked by lowlifes.


Actually, government officials prioritizing their own survival sounds like an eminently realistic scenario.


Yes, but they don't even try to help their guards' survival, so unsurprisingly things don't turn out well.


Don't forget all the luxurious fallout shelters in the US built for government officials.


"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." - Genesis 7:11


Interesting. I always had the impression that in the various flood myths, the waters always came from the heavens. Very perceptive of you to notice that they are also said to have come from the deep. Is this corroborated in other myths? Gilgamesh, for instance?


A scientific dead-end, then...


There's some true and even good information in the bible (e.g. turn the other cheek when assaulted, treat foreigners as citizens, help the poor), but just because there are scientific facts contained in portions does not make the entire text correct (e.g. slaves obey your masters).


I doubt the Bible had a team of geologists run seismic studies to find subterranean water reserves. It's just a coincidence.


Clearly not, but potentially not just coincidental either. There have been many theories suggesting that flood myths in cultures all over the world were inspired by actual floods[1], which actual geologists are working to uncover evidence of.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_myth#Claims_of_historici...




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