06-15-2014, 06:19 AM
Three quarters of the Earth's water underground equals a total of 4x Earth's oceans; many water worlds hold tens or hundreds as much water as Earth, so these will not be affected.
Where this becomes significant is planets with similar water content to the Earth- I think it means that the mantle reservoir needs to fill up before the surface becomes waterlogged, so there might be quite a few more planets with moderate or low water cover. More dry worlds, more worlds with small oceans, more worlds with relatively shallow oceans.
This also suggests that it is quite difficult to dry a planet out completely - there might be water deep inside Venus, after all.
Where this becomes significant is planets with similar water content to the Earth- I think it means that the mantle reservoir needs to fill up before the surface becomes waterlogged, so there might be quite a few more planets with moderate or low water cover. More dry worlds, more worlds with small oceans, more worlds with relatively shallow oceans.
This also suggests that it is quite difficult to dry a planet out completely - there might be water deep inside Venus, after all.