water world Archives

Impact of continental chemical weathering and oceanic redox processes on sedimentary Fe speciation. (A) Compilation of Fe speciation data for different rock types (37), the modern terrestrial Earth’s surface (37), tropical soils (this study), and suspended particles (SPM) from 22 rivers in the United States (25), as well as from eight additional rivers worldwide (26), including the Amazon River (Amz), Brahmaputra River (Brp), Magdalena River (Mgd), and Nile River. -- PNAS

Iron Helped Scientists Trace Earth’s Oxygen. Now It’s Telling A Bigger Story

by Keith CowingSeptember 3, 2026September 3, 2026

[Michigan State University] For decades, scientists have studied iron preserved in ancient rocks to reconstruct how Earth’s oceans and atmosphere became rich in oxygen. A new study suggests iron has […]

Icy Worlds

The Role of Disruptive Impacts on Ocean Generation and Longevity in Icy Moons

by Keith CowingAugust 21, 2026August 21, 2026

[Nature Astronomy] Among icy moons of the outer Solar System, subsurface water oceans and large collisions both seem to be common, but the impact of the latter on the presence […]

This illustration contrasts Earth's oceans during ancient glaciations (left) with deglacial conditions (right). Syracuse University researchers found that oceans lost oxygen not just during warm periods, but repeatedly during Earth's deepest ice ages, a pattern preserved in manganese deposits within ancient seafloor rock. (Courtesy: Xubin Wang, generated with AI)-- [Syracuse University]

Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology

Metal Deposits Linked To Oceanic Oxygen Loss During Ancient Ice Ages

by Keith CowingAugust 20, 2026August 20, 2026

[Syracuse University] An international team of researchers analyzed manganese and other chemical signatures preserved in more than 27,000 ancient seafloor samples collected from six continents. Across six major glaciations spanning […]

Evolution of water abundances and hydrogen isotopic compositions of BMO and crystallizing Bdg and PPv.

Astrogeology

High Solubility Of Water In Post-perovskite And Bridgmanite In The Earth’s Deep Lower Mantle

by Keith CowingAugust 5, 2026August 5, 2026

[physics.geo-ph] Water in the Earth’s mantle induces melting, giving rise to strong chemical heterogeneity, and alters its rheological and transport properties, which are keys to understanding seismic-wave speeds anomalies, convective […]

Underwater Oxygen Loss -- Grok via Astrobiology.com

Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Underwater Oxygen Loss Threatens Earth’s Stability, Researchers Warn

by Keith CowingJuly 22, 2026July 22, 2026

[UCSD] A new review paper led by scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography warns that the rapid loss of oxygen from the ocean and other aquatic ecosystems […]

A puffball of trichodesmium, a phytoplankton that converts nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into nitrate, a nutrient needed by all plant life in the ocean. These special puffball require iron in order to provide this community service of nitrate generation. (Photo: Paige Wise)

Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Water Planet Ecosystems: How An Underwater Volcano Is Fertilizing The South Pacific

by Keith CowingJuly 15, 2026July 15, 2026

[Paige Wise USC] There is a volcano beneath the surface of the South Pacific that most people will never see, never hear about, and never think about. But it is […]

Habitable Zones

Water Planet Habitability: Sea Level Is Linked To Earth’s Carbon Thermostat

by Keith CowingJuly 15, 2026July 15, 2026

[Syracuse University] Earth has a natural thermostat that has kept the planet habitable for more than a hundred million years. Scientists have struggled to fully explain how it works, but […]

Coordinate systems. (a) Schematic of the coordinate systems. e𝜃 and er are the meridional (latitudinal) direction and the vertical direction (opposite to the gravitational direction), respectively. ez and es are the axial direction aligned with planetary rotation and the radial direction perpendicular to it, respectively. e𝜙 represents both the zonal direction in spherical coordinates and the azimuthal direction in cylindrical coordinates. (b) Distribution of 𝐻𝑧 in the simulation with Enceladus-like parameters: a core radius of 192 km and an ocean surface radius of 232 km. Outside the tangent cylinder, 𝐻𝑧 is kept constant. In (a) and (b), gray dashed lines indicate the tangent cylinder. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Parameterizing Slantwise Convection In Icy Moon Oceans

by Keith CowingJune 25, 2026June 25, 2026

Convection in icy moon oceans is strongly influenced by rotation, organizing into slantwise columnar structures aligned with the planetary rotation axis. They generate significant meridional heat transport, which can affect […]