This is what happens when lava
mixes with water.
But luckily,
this only happens in a
small portion of our world.
But what if that wasn't the case?
And lava filled up our oceans?
What might happen then?
If you think something like this
is impossible because
we don't have enough lava in the world,
think again.
There's enough magma in the
Earth's mantle to fill our oceans
650 times.
But this process wouldn't be overnight.
So how long would it take?
This would be a slow process.
If we erupted all volcanoes at once
to fill our oceans entirely with lava,
that process would take over 32,000 years.
But that doesn't mean the fun
wouldn't begin right away.
As soon as lava
started to reach the ocean,
it would react with the water,
creating a lava haze.
These plumes of smoke
come when lava connects with water.
And they're comprised of hydrochloric acid gas,
steam as well as tiny volcanic particles.
So, in short,
this is something you don't want
anywhere near you.
If you do come in contact
with this smoke,
it can cause lung,
eye, and skin irritation.
And usually, when smoke like this does happen,
it's in a small contained area.
So humans could evacuate to someplace safer.
But in our scenario,
these lava plumes would be everywhere.
It would practically be impossible to escape.
Not only that,
but the wind would also carry the smoke,
further spreading it around the world.
But that's just what
humans would experience.
What about all the ocean wildlife?
Well, unfortunately for them,
anything inside the oceans
would be boiled alive.
This would also be a problem for humans
as 3.5 billion depend on the ocean
as their primary source of food.
As the wildlife died,
the water in the ocean
would boil and evaporate.
Even more greenhouse gases
and fumes would be released into the atmosphere.
As the oceans continued to fill,
all the increased smoke and fog
would reduce the amount of sunlight
that reaches the planet.
This would cause plants
and crops to completely die out.
And now that the ocean is full of lava,
the Earth would be incredibly hot.
For reference,
lava can be as hot as 1,200 °C (2,200 °F).
And the heat it radiates is scorching as well.
People flying above pools of lava
from hundreds of feet in the air
have reported feeling immense heat.
So if lava covered 70%
of the Earth's surface,
the temperature would be thousands of degrees
and would instantly cook you to a crisp.
If you somehow managed to survive this,
good luck with the Earth's new weather system.
That's because the heat from the lava
would mix with cooler air inland.
And this would create
a fire cloud that would produce
violent lightning storms
and generate extreme winds.
To get a better sense of what might happen,
we can look to the past.
Billions of years ago,
Earth looked quite a bit like this.
It was full of lava
and had no way of supporting life.
But as hundreds of millions of years passed,
the lava cooled and solidified.
Earth could now sustain life.
And that's what would happen in our scenario.
Hundreds of millions of years would pass,
and the lava would eventually cool down enough
for the planet to be inhabitable again.
And hopefully,
humanity would have devised a plan
to get off the planet
as it was filling with lava.
But that sounds like a story for another WHAT IF.