The role of water in the evolution of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Yu.D. KUZMIN, V.G. SAKHNO

Abstract

The role of water in the evolution of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Yu.D. KUZMIN (Kamchatka Branch of the Federal Research Center “Unified Geophysical Service of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky), V.G. SAKHNO (Far East Geological Institute, FEB RAS, Vladivostok).

The authors offer their understanding of a sequence of processes of underground hydrosphere formation and its contribution to the Earth’s evolution in the light of new paradigm of water formation in the Solar system. The underground hydrosphere plays a major role in conversion of various energies into internal heat. The heat resulted from exothermal reactions in water solutions of the Earth’s crust and that induced by geomagnetic pulsations within the Earth’s magnetosphere accumulated to high values. All processes on the Earth and other terrestrial planets are determined by the solar heating of their surface and subsurface layers where water is in different aggregate states. As a result we observe the hot planets Mercury and Venus with the dissipated state of water and the planet Mars with the solid state of water in the form of ice in its subsurface layer. The uniqueness of the Earth is that the water on it is in liquid, gaseous and solid states concurrently.