Why oceans on earth are not absorbed by earths crust completly
In: Geology
Rocks are heavier than water. The water from the oceans gets in whatever cracks are present between the rocks, but there’s a lot more water than there’s space in the cracks, so the oceans “float” on the Earth’s crust because it’s made of rock.
Similarly, the air “floats” on the water and the rocks too.
Gravity pulls everything down, the heaviest things will be at the bottom, displacing and pushing up the lighter things.
Not 100% sure what you’re asking but here I go. The earths tectonic plates are super close to each other, some over lap some form ocean trenches under that is a super dense layer of earth made from rock called the mantle, it’s made up of iron, silicon, etc. Water most likely seeps into the mantle but the mantle is virtually impermeable,enough so to withstand a large amount of erosion. Of course there is alot more to it than that but that’s a quick little summary (ps parts of the mantle that are eroded off usually join the tectonic plates as lava or a new plate,the later it takes a super long time and is rare, its very unlikely to happen during our or even our great great great grandkids time)
What if there was a massive earthquake that ripped open a cavern in the mantle from the surface? Would water flow in?
Not an expert, but I would assume the earth’s crust becomes water tight at a certain pressure. A mile of water or rock is a lot of fucking weight.
Actually, earth’s oceans are very slowly being absorbed and bound up by the rocks in earth’s crust. Luckily, it will be billions of years until this becomes a big problem for earth’s climate.
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