Q. 33: Do the steam jets in CPT have sufficient energy to reach earth’s escape velocity?

CPT Q. #33 – 101 Q&A on Catastrophic Plate Tectonics

Question: 33. In your 2003 ICC paper you wrote that steam from the fountains of the deep might have reached escape velocity. However, later you included a note saying that a further calculation had shown there would not be sufficient energy. Please explain how you arrived at the lower 2 x 106 J/kg number for the specific energy available.

Response: The error was that I incorrectly included a factor of density when I calculated the amount of thermal specific energy available. The density of water is about 1000 kg/m3, so I overestimated the available thermal specific energy by a factor of 1000. It was an embarrassing error, but at least I caught it not long after the conference.

The lower 2 x 106 J/kg value for the amount of thermal energy available is obtained by multiplying an estimate for the temperature drop in the jet, which I took to be 1000 °C, by the specific heat of steam at 100 °C, 2080 J/(kg-°C).