Water is very important when we consider the survival of living organisms
Water is very important when we consider the survival of living organisms. However, what is strange enough is that we know nothing about its origin and how it came to form oceans and lakes. In early stages of our education, most of the teaching about water were mostly based on water cycle which involves water evaporation from water sources, condensation resulting to formation of clouds and finally, the clouds released the water to refill oceans, and all these processes were sensible only for one thing: None of these processes illuminated us on how water was formed and deposited to the oceans and atmosphere or when. The origin of water and oceans remain to be a debatable topic among many scholars. The most recognized concept is that billions of years ago, the earth was bombarded by comets, asteroids and icy particles and this process led to the ice being released to both the atmosphere and the earth surface to for lakes, oceans etc. (Pepin, 1991). Regardless of these scientific realizations, the topic on how water came to be on earth and the formation of oceans remains to be a debatable topic that has yet to be resolved.
The formation of the ocean came about through the collision between the earth and other planetesimals containing water. This came about through the degassing process of water-containing planetesimals which were attracted through gravitational force by the earth to create a massive steam atmosphere that gradually accumulated into lakes, oceans and other water bodies after the cooling effect. According to Matsui and Abe, (1986), there exist only three realistic water-containing planetesimals which are icy planetesimals, solar nebula and the rocky planetesimals (Abe, 1986). The planetesimals are known to be obtained through gravitational agitation taking place between the earth and other solar system’s components which are asteroids, planets and the comets (Pinti & Arndt, 2014). As the named planetesimals are said to have contained vast amounts of water, they could quickly be delivered from the outer region due to the gravitational disconcertion of other planets (Raymond, 2004). During the agitation process, many gases were produced like oxides which reacted with hydrogen existing on the earth surface to produce more oceanic water.
A different theory claim that earth’s water was formed billions of years ago when large saturated asteroids began their development process to become planets as the solar nebula was still whirling around the sun (Genda, 2016). The asteroids commonly regarded as the planetary embryos grew in a rapid manner after the collision. As a result of this collision, enough energy was introduced to bring about the melting effect on the largest embryos, and the process resulted in oceans of magma. The largest magma developed and created the planet earth (Genda, 2016). Through gravity, gases such as hydrogen and noble cases were directed to the earth and developed to an early atmosphere. Further nebular hydrogen dissolved into the ocean of molten magma and through isotopic fractionation, the hydrogen was directed to the centre of the earth. Due to the accumulation of these gases on a young earth, their reaction resulted in the formation of surface water until the earth reached its final size.
Another argument on the origin of water into the atmosphere and the landmass is based on the existence of giant planets on the outer side of the solar system. The argument goes further to explain that near the giant planets, the solar nebular was very cold. As a result, minor bodies were created through the accumulation of frosty particles which contained extremely high amounts of ice and volatile substances (Sarafian, Nielsen, Marschall, McCubbin, & Monteleone, 2014). As the giant planets developed to accumulate a mass above ten terrestrial masses, the parts of the minor icy and frosty bodies were disturbed enough to direct some to the solar system (Morrison, 1977). During the perturbation process, the frosty bodies hit the surface of the earth and were numerous enough to and resulted to the atmosphere and the water on oceans, lakes and other water sources located on the surface of the earth. This process is estimated to have taken place around 13.8 billion years ago, but the actual time remains unclear.
Through the analysis of these three claims on the formation of water and the existence ocean, we can note some weaknesses of the theories and maybe prove that water couldn’t be formed through such processes. A general criticism that is obtained from all these claims on the origin of the water is that they don’t explain the origin of the substances containing ice such as planetesimals. Where did the water-rich planetesimals get their water from? Additionally, for the process that said that water was formed through the reaction of the hydrogen and other noble gases, where did all these gases come from? In addition, this is claimed to have taken place millions of years ago, but no one human was in existence to witness this, and thus this ideas can only be explained as assumptions as they lack evidence.
In conclusion, water is an essential thing that the earth contains and it covers 70% of the earth surface. The process of understanding the notion behind the origin of the water is quite complicated and has so many unanswered questions. There exist three common claims explaining the origin of water into the earth and the atmosphere. The first is based on the existence of giant planets on the exterior side of the solar system whose surrounding was very cold resulting to formation of icy particles that later on formed earth water (Genda, 2016). The other claim is based on planetesimals, while the final base its argument on the reaction of hydrogen and other noble gases to form earth water (Pepin, 1991). All these theories lack enough strength and evidence to explain the occurrence of earth water, and thus the origin of earth water both in the atmosphere and on the landmass remains unknown.