HotDayBreeze 42m ago • 100%
Sure but once a continental plate is flooded, isn't it by definition an oceanic plate at that point? A continent only exists if it isn't flooded.
HotDayBreeze 2h ago • 100%
Thanks for all the detail! Your observation about comets is really pertinent. Saltwater is probably itself a purer form of water than comets. Maybe an ocean planet is actually more like a muddy swamp of nasty dirty water than a lake.
HotDayBreeze 2h ago • 100%
Exactly. If a planet ever had a salty ocean, adding more water probably wouldn't dilute it in any meaningful way, so it would need to be a planet that never had continents.
HotDayBreeze 2h ago • 100%
That is super interesting! I hope the Clipper gives us a definitive answer!
HotDayBreeze 2h ago • 100%
I was trying to figure out how much underwater erosion there is but if you compare the sandy and silty bottom of the ocean to like, Utah, it seems like continental erosion is orders of magnitude more significant.
Conversely, we know oceans deposit all sorts of stuff at their bottoms, which makes me think there is a small amount of salt being deposited. Would that cancel out significant underwater erosion?
Similarly, if underwater erosion was a big deal, wouldn't old lakes (in geological time) be notably saltier than young lakes? But the only salty lakes we have primarily lose all their water through evaporation, basically ultra concentrated river water.
If water flowing over continents in rivers is what concentrates salt in our ocean, would a planet that has always been covered in water just be freshwater? The water is just sitting there, not eroding through salts.
HotDayBreeze 2w ago • 100%
And if you like Travelers, make sure to watch Sarah Conors Chronicle
HotDayBreeze 2w ago • 100%
Check out Travelers. They start out with a lot of agency but stuff gets wrong and it's more and more desperate.