When you look around, we are seemed to be surrounded by water but have you ever wondered where did Earth’s water come from?
Based on current astronomical understanding you may be surprised to find out that most of Earth’s water came from comets that crashed into the planet during a period called late heavy bombardment about 4 billion years ago.
The Earth as it formed was too hot to hold any liquid water. However, disturbances to the asteroid belt by Jupiter during the early formation of our solar system caused millions of comets and asteroids to come into the inner solar system crashing into Mercury, Venus Earth and Mars.
NASA'S GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER CONCEPTUAL IMAGE LA
In fact, majority of craters that you see on our Moon was created during this period. You may be surprised to know that the Moon has water, but not in liquid form. Most of the Moon’s water is mineralogically locked within it’s rocks. There maybe some that might be in ice form at its poles – and Nasa’s Artemis Moon missions may provide an answer to this.
Unlike the Moon, Earth with a larger gravity and possessing a magnetic field held on to gases emitted from it’s creation, creating an atmosphere which eventually led to the right pressure and temperature conditions for water to be a liquid on the surface – creating our hydrological cycle on which all life on Earth depends.
So next time you are looking at a sunset over an ocean you can appreciate the vast and complicated astronomical processes that happened billions of years ago to allow water to exist on our planet.
As precious as Earth’s water is and whilst Earth’s natural hydrological cycle continually recycles water, only 3% is fresh water and less than 1% of which is readily accessible for human consumption and farming needs.
Now with changes to the rainfall patterns due to climate change large parts of the world are either experiencing severe drought conditions or heavy rain both of which limit our access to clean drinking water.
Collecting and using rainwater is a great way to augment our water needs and help reduce strain on our municipal supplies.
Not only does this allow reduction in the energy used in desalination and pumping of water, but this also helps in reducing storm water run-off. Leading to less eutrophication and formation of hazardous blue/green algae in our streams and rivers.
And, in a little way help save our water resources for future generations and help combat climate change.