NASA created a video depicting the Earth’s seas drying up 12 years ago. Much of the data for the animation came from NASA’s Earth Observatory, which is a data and images repository for satellites. The oceans of the Earth were eliminated in 10-meter-per-frame intervals in that movie.
Over the next several hundred million years, the natural increase in sun luminosity—a very gradual process unrelated to present global warming—will lead the Earth’s temperatures to rise. The oceans will completely evaporate as a result of this.
How will this happen?
The first three-dimensional climate model capable of simulating the process forecasts that liquid water will vanish on Earth in around one billion years, expanding earlier projections by hundreds of millions of years.
The Sun’s brightness, like that of other stars, gradually rises with time. As a result of increased solar radiation, it is projected that the Earth’s temperature would warm over geological timeframes, irrespective of human-induced global warming, which occurs over decades. Because the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increases as the seas warm and the water evaporates faster.
Water vapor, on the other hand, is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming. As a result, scientists anticipate that the Earth will experience runaway climatic warming, causing the oceans to boil and liquid water to evaporate from the surface.
Another implication is that the greenhouse effect will enter a runaway stage and become unstable, making it difficult to sustain Earth’s moderate mean temperature of 15 °C.
When may this apocalyptic situation arise on Earth?
Some of the one-dimensional climate models predict that the Earth would lose all of its water to space within 150 million years, transforming into a new Venus.
A three-dimensional model has been made to predict how the terrestrial environment will change as a result of a significant increase in solar flux, which causes the evaporation of liquid water into the atmosphere.
The tipping point, according to this advanced model, should occur in approximately one billion years. The seas will then begin to boil, and the greenhouse effect will worsen until it reaches a tipping point.
This difference is due to air circulation: when it transports heat from the equator to the mid-latitudes, it dries these warm regions and lowers the greenhouse effect in locations where it is most prone to become a runaway.
Increased solar energy appears to amplify this atmospheric circulation, further drying subtropical regions and stabilizing the climate for hundreds of millions of years before it reaches a point of no return.
What are the implications of these findings?
These discoveries can also be used to calculate the size of the habitable zone around the Sun. They demonstrate that a planet may go as near to a star like our Sun as 0.95 astronomical units before losing all of its liquid water.
Furthermore, they show that a planet does not have to be identical to Earth in order to have seas. The researchers intend to apply their model to extrasolar planets in order to understand which circumstances could aid in the retention of liquid water.
The Takeaway
Don’t be concerned. The oceans aren’t going anywhere. At least not anytime soon, so there’s no need to add it to your list of concerns.
