The earth is gradually drying up because it is swallowing the ocean itself

The earth's deep water cycle is unbalanced and this is more or less related to Pangea, a dead supercontinent.

Earth's deep water cycle is unbalanced and this is more or less related to Pangea, a dead supercontinent.

New research from the Earth Evolution and Dynamics Center of the University of Oslo (Norway) shows that our planet's deep water cycle is clearly unbalanced: The Earth always "eats" some water , hide them deep inside the planet and never return to the ground. This has to push the earth to millions of years of extreme dehydration.

Picture 1 of The earth is gradually drying up because it is swallowing the ocean itself

A hydrothermal hole on the ocean floor, where the earth returns most of the water it has sucked into the deep water cycle - (photo: NOAA).

The Earth's deep water cycle is a marvelous cycle that takes place deep down in the ocean and in the ground. Every year, millions of gallons of water (US units of measurement, equivalent to 3.785 liters) flow from the ocean floor into the earth's coating: water seeps into the crust and the bottom of the sea, then all are pushed into inside the earth, where tectonic plates collide.

Most of the water is sprayed back to the surface through underground volcanoes and hydrothermal systems . However, some water is retained by the earth, sinking deeply inside before it can evaporate and escape through the hydrothermal system. It is this "eating off" part of the earth that imbalances the deep water cycle.

Picture 2 of The earth is gradually drying up because it is swallowing the ocean itself

Pangea supercontinent before being torn into 6 continents - (photo: Designua Shutterstock).

The biggest imbalance occurred 200 million years ago, when the entire land on the planet was a supercontinent called Pangea . As previous studies demonstrate, a huge subduction, in which the earth devoured the ocean on the other side of the globe and caused a force so strong that it tore Pangea into six continents today and pull many lands near the submerged area.

The earth emits most of the ocean, first the Atlantic Ocean, which is about 175 million years old. However, our planet is "taking advantage of the situation" , swallowing up a large amount of water, causing the global sea level to drop to 130 meters only in the event mentioned above.

Today, the Earth continues to cause a silent imbalance in the deep water cycle. In the long run, this could push the planet into millions of years of extreme dehydration. The good news is that it only really has a significant impact on hundreds of millions to billions of years.

However, according to lead author Krister Karlsen, the rate of sea level rise due to climate change is now many times higher than the loss due to the effect of self-imbalance in deep water cycles . "While the deep water cycle can effectively change sea levels for hundreds of millions to billions of years, climate change can change sea levels in the range of 0 to 100 years," he said. . Estimates each year, the harmful effects of humans on the climate cause sea level rise of 3.2mm. The amount of water that the earth eats every year is only about 1 / 10,000 of this amount.

The research has just been published in Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems.

Update 12 June 2019
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