Skip to comments.Astronomy Picture of the Day -- All the Water on Planet Earth
Posted on 05/15/2012 4:39:34 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: How much of planet Earth is made of water? Very little, actually. Although oceans of water cover about 70 percent of Earth's surface, these oceans are shallow compared to the Earth's radius. The above illustration shows what would happen is all of the water on or near the surface of the Earth were bunched up into a ball. The radius of this ball would be only about 700 kilometers, less than half the radius of the Earth's Moon, but slightly larger than Saturn's moon Rhea which, like many moons in our outer Solar System, is mostly water ice. How even this much water came to be on the Earth and whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth's surface remain topics of research.
(Excerpt) Read more at 188.8.131.52 ...
and look - it's in Crawford, TX! George W. Bush has stolen all the world's water!
That’s still a crapload of water.
How about bunching up the amount of land above sea level.
ha Ha! You Beat me to it! I was going to say that the consolidation of the Oceans into a tiny ball, thus killing all sea life and destroying the World is Bush’s Fault!
LOL (Oh the Hugh Manatees!)
No, I have never seen this pic before.
If the planet were shrunk down to a 2” diameter it would be more perfect and smooth than any man made ball bearing. Even with the Marianas trench and Mt Everest and K-2
OMGoodness! I was going to say that is the scariest picture I’ve ever seen, but I read the thread first and can’t stop laughing. You folks are a riot!
We’re all gonna die! Aiiieeeeee!!!!!!
OK, I feel better now.
Do you have a mathematical equation for this?
Forgive me, but this is as hard for me to believe as the stuff about a woman’s monthly amounting to less than a tablespoon of blood.
Implausible hyperbole. (:
And if that ball were dry, you could make deeper oceans just by breathing on it.
It’s the, “If the earth were the size of a billiard ball...” analogy. I first heard that in high school in the early ‘60s. It impressed me enough that it stuck in my head.
Cool! Now I can walk down there and collect all the Spanish gold I want!
Yep - I think "they" said that if the great lakes were distributed across the USA, it would coat the country in 4' of water.
I’d still say that it’s enough. And for how much water is below the earth’s surface? Probably just as much. Thanks to being a geologically active planet with a molten interior, we are constantly replenishing our oceans and atmosphere. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes aren’t just “acts of God.” They are his gifts.
Great one, Sensei!
Heck, Michigan is already covered with water. You can’t turn around without stepping into a swamp, lake, or stream. I’ve read that we’re never more than a mile from some type of water body in Michigan.
They're already on it, Peter Gleick (the criminal that confessed to the Heartland theft of documents) when he isn't pimping Global Warming is an H2O alarmist. On the board of his Pacific Institute is none other than the Malthusian Anne H. Ehrlich, the wife of the Malthusian clown Paul Ehrlich.
Good teachable moment about the difference between surface area and volume.
“How even this much water came to be on the Earth and whether any significant amount is trapped far beneath Earth’s surface remain topics of research.”
Ok, could this be where this is going? What happens to the water that is pumped several thousand feet down into a shale formation to force out the hydrocarbons trapped in the shale?
This photo will be used by cruel teachers to scare the children!
Alright folks, time to put the water back. It’s hurting tourism on beachfronts.
I saw this pic on The Weather Channel this morning before seeing it here.
There’s a subterranean sea of sorts somewhere under the Himalayas (for one example); the amount of water pumped by humans — throughout history — doesn’t amount to much.
And as ngat implied, it’s probably meme-building about fracking.
If the world’s population was dumped into the middle of the ocean at once, would there be enough displacement to cause a notable rise in the sea level?
If the worlds population was dumped into the middle of the ocean at once, would there be enough displacement to cause a notable rise in the sea level?
Did you say "ball bearing" ?
Yer probly right. I’ve been a machinist/engineer all my days so ball bearings being as smooth as possible is the best. You pay really top dollar for for good ones.
The noun. NOT the adjective.
Depends how much beer they had before being dumped there.
Their calculations are wrong. The volume of water on the plant which includes all the the water on the earth and in the atmosphere comes out to 1,400,000,000 km^3 which would make a sphere approximately 1400 km in diameter which is twice as large as they show in the pic.
Just most crap out of NASA. They need to go away
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