# Ocean Drainage **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057 "2007-06-14T22:35:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/1 "2007-06-14T22:35:52Z")
I was wondering, why do our seas not simply drain away into the earths core? Am I in the right room for this question? Thanks CJ ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/2 "2007-06-14T22:48:37Z")
[QUOTE=CJOK] I was wondering, why do our seas not simply drain away into the earths core? Am I in the right room for this question? Thanks CJ [/QUOTE] Hello, am I just being lmpatient, or am I being ignored because of my behaviour the other night? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/3 "2007-06-14T22:53:19Z")
Surely I am not the 1st person to ask this question. You are usually much swifter than this! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/4 "2007-06-14T22:57:24Z")
[QUOTE=CJOK] Surely I am not the 1st person to ask this question. You are usually much swifter than this! 😕 [/QUOTE] As far as I can recall, you are. The Earth’s core is neither hollow nor permeable to water. Most people I think are aware of this. ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/5 "2007-06-14T22:57:53Z")
[QUOTE=CJOK] Surely I am not the 1st person to ask this question. You are usually much swifter than this! 😕 [/QUOTE] Or, is my ignorance preventing me seeing an obvious answer again? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/6 "2007-06-14T23:01:50Z")
C`mon people, I swear on my mutts life, I am NOT trolling, whatever that is. This is a genuine query, surely! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/7 "2007-06-14T23:02:30Z")
[QUOTE=CJOK] Or, is my ignorance preventing me seeing an obvious answer again? 😕 [/QUOTE] That depends. What do you think lies at the Earth’s core? ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/8 "2007-06-14T23:04:40Z")
Even if there was a place for it to go, any drainage route to the inside of the earth would be filled with mantle material quickly. In addition, when molten rock meets water, it cools roughly upon contact. This process traps water in the rock to the tune of 15%, this is the probable initial cause of the [vast subterranean area of water very deep within the earth](http://www.livescience.com/environment/070228_beijing_anomoly.html) that a recent news article/“study” was proclaiming. ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/9 "2007-06-14T23:05:42Z")
Am I supposed to imply that this silence means the answer is elsewhere on this forum, why do n`t you just say where I should be looking. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/10 "2007-06-14T23:07:57Z")
CJOK, Sometimes you just have to be a little patient. I posted a question about the Prince of Wales and Catholicism about this time last night. As of this morning, it only had about three replies – about twelve hours after I posted it. In the next twelve hours it got about sixteen replies. So, in short, be patient. People will come along to answer. Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/11 "2007-06-14T23:08:12Z")
[QUOTE=CJOK] Am I supposed to imply that this silence means the answer is elsewhere on this forum, why do n`t you just say where I should be looking. [/QUOTE] Sorry, there I go , jumping the gun again. Carry on, please. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/12 "2007-06-14T23:13:24Z")
So what is happening along these ocean rifts, where the lava is escaping? Why does it not just fill these fissures in the earths crust, and disappear. Is it anything to do with gravity? ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/13 "2007-06-14T23:17:52Z")
This is a little like the digging to China questions. The Russians dug the worlds deepest hole over several decades using whatever cutting edge techniques they sould come up with. I believe they finally made it down about 6 miles over several decadens before they couldn’t come up with a way to proceed anymore. The earth is plastic, partially molten, and flowing at only six miles. BTW, the earth is almost 4000 miles in radius so they had quite a way to go if they wanted to reach the center and twice that if they wanted to dig all the way across. The earth isn’t just a bunch of dirt that stuff can flow into like gardenb soil. It is a very plastic consistenct that will form and seal around whatever is cooling and shaping it at the top where it cools. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/14 "2007-06-14T23:17:55Z")
OK, I’ll take a shot. We have the idea that water always seeks to flow to a lower point, right? What causes that to happen? Gravity. Gravity pulls water from high places to low places. What’s heavier, rock or water? Rock is heavier. Gravity also pulls rock from high places to low places. Now, since rock is generally solid at the earth’s surface, and water is generally liquid, we don’t realize two things. On a very long time scale, gravity will pull down solid rock. The Rockies will crumble, Gibraltar may tumble, they’re only made of clay. And also, lots of rock on earth is NOT solid, it is liquid. You ever notice the lava that pours out of volcanoes? Liquid rock, right? That rock will flow like water to find a low place. And lava is much heavier than water. And underneath the solid rock under your feet is liquid rock. And this liquid rock does not have many empty places for water to flow into, if those hollow spaces existed liquid rock would flow into them instead. Now, there are places on earth where there are hollow spaces: caves. But these are pretty rare. And they are temporary spaces, only lasting many thousands of years. Eventually the caves collapse, and the rocks from the ceiling fall to the floor, and any water inside gets squished out. So there aren’t any cracks in the earth for water to pour into, because those cracks would get filled up very quickly, either with lava or with crumbling solid rock. Rock is heavier than water, just like water is heavier than air. And air is on top of water, water is on top of rock, and rock is on top of molten rock, and molten rock is on top of the earth’s nickel/iron core because nickel/iron is heavier than rock. Gravity sorts earth’s materials by density. ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/15 "2007-06-14T23:19:32Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] That depends. What do you think lies at the Earth’s core? [/QUOTE] I did n`t mean to ignore you, sorry. As far as I am aware, it`s supposed to be a solid metal core, with a layer of liquid metal, I think. ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/16 "2007-06-14T23:20:59Z")
i meant to add “surrounding it” as well. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/17 "2007-06-14T23:22:47Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri] The Earth’s core is neither hollow nor permeable to water. [/QUOTE] Plus the rocks on the seabed are denser than water, and at large enough scales, deform plastically, somewhat like a liquid. Less dense fluids _float_ on top of denser fluids. Plus, temperatures within the earth surpass the boiling point of water within the first few kilometers. Even [under a continental land mass, temperatures approach 100°C](http://geothermal.inel.gov/maps/inl_rdl_07-21-05_us_012.jpg) within the first few kilometers of crust. Gaseous water is _far_less dense than liquid water. ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/18 "2007-06-14T23:23:37Z")
Why, is it related to my query? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/19 "2007-06-14T23:25:22Z")
[QUOTE=Lemur866] …Now, there are places on earth where there are hollow spaces: caves. But these are pretty rare. And they are temporary spaces, only lasting many thousands of years. Eventually the caves collapse, and the rocks from the ceiling fall to the floor, and any water inside gets squished out… [/QUOTE] I really hate to do this, but… cite? ---
**Author:** ![CJOK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@CJOK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJOK)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057/20 "2007-06-14T23:26:22Z")
[QUOTE=Squink] Plus the rocks on the seabed are denser than water, and at large enough scales, deform plastically, somewhat like a liquid. Less dense fluids _float_ on top of denser fluids. Plus, temperatures within the earth surpass the boiling point of water within the first few kilometers. Even [under a continental land mass, temperatures approach 100°C](http://geothermal.inel.gov/maps/inl_rdl_07-21-05_us_012.jpg) within the first few kilometers of crust. Gaseous water is _far_less dense than liquid water. [/QUOTE] So it`s like trying to pass water through oil? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ocean-drainage/408057.md?page=2)