Tuesday, April 17, 2012

How The Earth Was Made - Oceans - Video

By Camille Borkowski


"The Blue Marble" photograph of Earth,
taken from Apollo 17
NASA. Photo taken by either Harrison Schmitt or Ron Evans (of the Apollo 17 crew).

14 comments:

Sinclaire said...

I had never thought about how the water got onto the Earth. After all, it is 71% water and it all had to come from somewhere! This was really interesting and I wonder what actually happened. I do have one question though. If this is how Earth got its water, then why don't any other planets have water? This was a cool video.

Jason said...

I thought that this movie was really interesting. It is just like the story of Noah's Ark and how it rained for a long time and flooded Earth. We don't usually think about how all of those oceans got there, we just acknowledge that it is there, that's all. I have 2 questions. How did that water that was already on the surface get there? If Earth got it's water this way, why don't the other planets have water also?

Jason said...

I thought that this movie was really interesting. It is just like the story of Noah's Ark and how it rained for a long time and flooded Earth. We don't usually think about how all of those oceans got there, we just acknowledge that it is there, that's all. I have 2 questions. How did that water that was already on the surface get there? If Earth got it's water this way, why don't the other planets have water also?

David said...

We’re very lucky to have life on earth. The circumstances had to be just right. First, we needed water which came from asteroids that collided with our planet when the Earth was being formed. Second, Earth needed to be in a habitable zone, just like Mars. Third, Earth needed a powerful magnetic field to withstand the solar winds which are harsh and could dry up our oceans. Since Mars is slightly smaller than Earth, its magnetic field couldn’t repel the wind particles from the solar wind. Mars used to have oceans, but they dried up. Our moon helps to stabilize our oceans, while Mars‘ two moons were too small to help it. Our atmosphere also helps to protect the water from UV rays and the solar wind. Mars has a very thin atmosphere which doesn’t protect it. As the ozone layer is being destroyed, we could be destroying our oceans.

Gillian said...

I have but two questions to this video. 1. How did the metiorites get water? Did they gather hydrogen and oxygen atoms on their galactic travels? If they did then how would the atoms stay on the metiorites? How did the atoms get inside it? I thought I heard somewhere that oxygen was only found on earth. Wouldn't that mean that there might be another planet suitable for life? Anyway, my second question. How did the oceans become salty? Wouldn't it rain fresh water? Or if it rained salt water then why are lakes and rivers lacking salt. This video was very informative, but it should have addressed these questions, don't you think?

Gillian said...

To Jason's question, the moon has traces of water and so does mars. If the moon has traces of water then it is very probable that this happened to the earth.

Ben said...

I agree with Jason. I watched some of the other videos on the page. They were interesting also. However, I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but there is no oxygen in space, or else we would be able to breathe. So how could there be water on the surface of asteriods and meteorites, hurtling through space?

Sergio said...

In response to Jason's post, there is water on the moon because the moon used to be part of earth until a small planet hit the earth. This left tons of rocks going around space, orbiting earth though they formed together to make the moon. This is why the there are traces of water on the moon.

Nate said...

Wow! That is very cool that water is thought to have come extra terrestrially . That supports the theory of life somewhere else besides Earth as well. Also, like Jason said, it is funny how this story is like Noah's Ark. Coincidence? Maybe... But that is pretty weird.

Amanda said...

I thought that this video was really interesting! I agree with Jason, it is kind of like Noah's Ark. Like Sinclaire, I have never really thought about this, how the water got on our planet. I agree with Gillian about the questions also.

Ava D. said...

This is truly interesting. Like Sinclaire, I never really thought about how water came to Earth. I don't know how the water came from the meteorites. Maybe there is some place far off our radar screens and our telescopes where the meteorites came from, bringing the water. I wish that they could have a sample of these mysterious meteorites!

Ava D. said...

To clarify, I meant the exact meteorites that brought the water to Earth in the first place.

Sofia said...

The movie was very interesting. I learned that 4.4 billion years ago, when meteors still crashed into the planets, water was forming. I also learned that as this planet cooled, it spewed out tons of carbon dioxide. Dr. Dan Durda says that the water came from meteorites which have five percent water. They say that it rained for millions of years.

Sofia said...

I'm glad I wasn't alive a few billion years ago (although you couldn't be) be cause I don't always like it when it rains.