New research indicates rocky pebbles reacting with hydrogen in Earth's early atmosphere could have produced hundreds of oceans' worth of water, rather than water arriving solely from comets or meteorites.
New research published in Nature Geoscience suggests Earth may have generated much of its own water as the planet was forming, rather than relying entirely on comets, meteorites, or other objects to deliver it from space.
Researchers at The University of New Mexico recreated extreme conditions from Earth's formation by exposing silicate rock samples to temperatures ranging from 1,200 to 1,400 degrees Celsius. They used flowing hydrogen gas and repeated the tests with helium for comparison. Each experiment ran for between 15 minutes and three hours.
When the rocks were heated in hydrogen, almost 80% of their iron oxide was transformed into metallic iron, with water vapor produced during the reaction. The researchers did not observe the same reaction when helium was used instead of hydrogen.
"We had suspected and hoped that we would produce iron metal and water in our reduction experiments, but we really had no way of knowing how fast and how much. We were quite surprised to find that extrapolation of our work suggests that hundreds of oceans' worth of water were likely produced in this way," said Zachary Sharp, professor and director of Earth and Planetary Sciences.
The study was led by graduate student Susmita Garai, along with Zachary Sharp and Peter Olson. Their calculations indicate the mechanism might have generated hundreds of oceans' worth of water during Earth's formation.
The findings suggest that water may be a natural part of how rocky planets form, rather than something that must arrive from space. If rocky planets around other stars develop similarly hot, hydrogen-rich atmospheres during their formation, they might also produce substantial amounts of water as rocky material accumulates.
The researchers note that the experiments do not establish how much of Earth's present water supply was actually produced this way. Additional research will be needed to determine the contribution of this mechanism compared with water delivered by comets, meteorites, and other sources.
The research offers a new explanation for how Earth acquired water, one of the most important ingredients for life. It also raises the possibility that other rocky planets throughout the universe could generate water through similar processes, potentially making habitable worlds more common than previously thought.
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This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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