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Stardust asked in EnvironmentGlobal Warming · 8 years ago

What would the ocean look like at boiling point?

Lets say the temperatures were 230 degrees F. Would there be bubbles on the surface? Id imagine the whole ocean wouldn't boil at the same time because can be 36,000 feet deep and it averages 10,000 feet deep and it is cold at those depths. So would it just be the surface that bubbles or something?

Update:

Ok so lets go with this further. Lets say the summer time high is 230 degrees F and the night time low is 180 degrees F would the water still boiling from the high extend towards boiling at night still or would the boiling stop because it is cooler?

4 Answers

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  • Trevor
    Lv 7
    8 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    It would depend how long it had been boiling for, what depth you were at, what the pressure was and what the temperature was.

    When you boil water in a pan, kettle or other receptacle you start seeing bubbles appearing long before the water boils. This is the air in the water that’s being released. Although it might not look like it, water contains a lot of air (it’s how fish breathe). As the temperature of the water rises the solubility of gases decreases and they’re released as bubbles. If you were to raise the water temperature you’d see air bubbles being released, if that temperature were then maintained a point of equilibrium between solubility and temperature would be reached and no further air bubbles would be released.

    When the water is actually boiling the bubbles that form are caused by water vapour. At the boiling point the molecules of water are energised to the extent that they’re able to break free from the bonds that confine them as a liquid and enter a gaseous state. At this stage another equilibrium is reached between the water and the water vapour, in essence all the water is trying to become vapour at the same time.

    The phase conversion from liquid to gas is pressure dependent, at sea-level the average pressure is 101.325 kilopascals and pure water will boil at 100°C. As you descend into the ocean the pressure increases, you only need to go down by 10 metres and the pressure is double that on the surface, at this depth water boils at 120°C.

    At 230°F (110°C) only that water that is at a pressure of less than 140kPa would boil, so in your scenario only the first four metres of the ocean would boil.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    For one thing, the Sun will be bigger and redder than it is now. Even if Earth had an atmosphere exactly like Venus, the same composition and pressure, its temperature would only be 60-80 degrees C. And under that much pressure, water would boil at over 300 degrees C.

  • burgas
    Lv 4
    5 years ago

    The planet do not need any outlined ocean boundaries; instead, it would get denser and more liquid as you got deeper. We now have found a number of planets that are simply like this. Of path, we handiest have so so much water in the world, so I have no idea how that'd impact matters.

  • Anonymous
    8 years ago

    Nothing would be alive . just wait a billion years and the Sun will demonstrate it.

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