Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

If all the water on earth were to be displaced into the atmosphere creating a water canopy, how thick would it be?

+0
−0

If the water on earth were displaced to surround the earth in the atmosphere to create a water canopy, how thick would that canopy be? I apologize I should have been more specific in my original question, how thick would the shell of water be if it was in the upper thermosphere around the 80 mile mark (125ish km)?

Another way to look at this without asking whether it is plausible or not, if the Earth's oceans were to evaporate into cloud and then be pushed by force into the upper atmosphere (thermosphere) and then condense back to water around the Earth how thick would that shell of water surrounding the earth be?

So I've been thinking about this water canopy still, lol. I'm stuck for some reason wanting to use this in my book, and I keep thinking about the improbabilities of it and I'm still struggling with the explanations I have been given. The average depth of the oceans is around 2.7km and the height of the lower thermosphere at the 100 degree temperature mark is around 110 km from sea level. So to distribute the sea water around the globe at that height (110 km or higher) I can't seem to grasp that the water would be as thick as every one is telling me. At that height and dispersal around the globe I would think it would be much shallower than what has been explained to me. I'm sorry to pester you, when you already explained the answer, I'm hoping you will be able to explain in simpler terms for me to grasp. It just seems to me that expanding a two kilometre depth outwards to 110 km would greatly reduce the depth. Like taking a full cup of water and then spreading it over a larger surface makes the liquid appear much shallower. I'm sure I'm just missing something or just not understanding, please help me to understand better lol.

So now that I have my answer clearly defined, thank you for your patience, I have another question to put forth on the same subject. If said water barrier or shell or canopy was in place, at the thickness it was calculated to be(I understand this to be around the 2km mark) would the gravitational pull of the moon be able to affect the thickness, like the tides currently, allowing for a thin enough barrier for sunlight to penetrate giving a day/night scenario?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/104425. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »