A question! (Earth & planetary sciences)

[Sherona]

Volcanologists have been studying the collapse of the World Trade Center's Buildings. They have been interviewing survivors and the people on the ground in lower manhatten. Why are Volcanologists studying the collapse of a building?


:)

[Vekseid]

I had to guess that their collapse resembled a Volcano :-p Sherona can be more specific.

Hmm Geology this time!  Where does the water from Earth's oceans come from?

[Sherona]

*grins* The fall of the buildings, and the subsequent dust cloud that rumbled through the streets of Manhattan formed something that was as close to a Pyroclastic flow (the gas and debris from a volcanic eruption that flows down, it moves at an EXTREMELY fast pace, and at extremely hot temperatures, meaning probes and other measuring devices nor humans could survive a direct hit of one of these flows). It allowed Scientists to study the effects and there were survivors who were able to describe what happened inside this dust cloud. Thus giving them more insight on what happens during the natural volcanic flows :)


Ok, as far as the question, I have an answer but will do more study into it :)

[Apple of Eris]

Considering that Hydrogen and Oxygen are the first and third most abundant elements in the universe, and water molecules have been detected in spectroscopic measurements of nova and supernova it seems likely that water formed from hydrogen and oxgen atoms combining during earths formation. Water is also spewed onto earths surface via geo-thermal activity and likely some was delivered to earth via comet activity early in earth's formation. However scientists have not reached a definitive answer just yet, and it seems likely that it was some combination of all these factors.

Uhm... how did Catherine the Great (Tzarina) die?

[Vekseid]

Water, like ammonia and methane, is a primordial molecule - that is, most of it formed before the Earth did. Though some of course does form from chemical processes, this isn't so common simply because hydrogen must be locked up in other chemicals and oxygen frequently is.

Meteor impacts are likely responsible for Earth's hydrosphere but another major (and some suggest the major, given the revelations of the giant impact hypothesis) source is outgassing - water molecules being ejected into the atmosphere that had previously been trapped within the Earth, from the core on upwards.

More importantly, Earth's oceans and tectonic activity share a sort of symbiotic relationship. As the Earth continues to cool, tectonic activity is driven in part by that and the lubrication provided by water within the crust. The internal heat of the Earth forces the oceans upward, and once the Earth cools sufficiently (IIRC the Sun will boil the oceans away first), the oceans will seep back into the mantle.