Is Earth mostly liquid, like a water balloon?

Fleur_@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 51 points –
19

Technically speaking, no. The mantle, which is solid, comprises about 2/3 of the Earth's mass. However at a planetary scale solids are not rigid enough to maintain their shape, so the Earth is closer to a liquid held together by gravity than to a rigid solid object. See this simulation for an interesting demonstration of its properties: https://youtu.be/kRlhlCWplqk

So it's like a water balloon full of dust/sand?

The surface is mostly covered in water, but compared the total volume of spherical earth, there's fuck all water.

There's a difference between water and liquid.

Not sure if the solid core has more mass than the mantle.
In any case, I'd say it's like a balloon with something solid floating in the middle.

I don't believe the "solid" core is solid in any sense of the word we can relate to; kinda like how Jupiters volume is mostly gas, yet 99% of that is at densities greater than the Mariana trench — where you would vaporize, and would feel more solid to us that anything we've experienced — and the "solid" core is more like a molten hydrogen liquid; hotter than the surface of the sun (but not hot enough for fusion).

Was referring to the stuff under the crust as the liquid not the water on top

But how liquid is the molten core? (I assume that's where this poster was going)

The correct answer is we don't know. There are novel (to us, anyway) states of iron, for example, that exist at extreme temperatures and pressures that have led scientists to postulate on the possible existence of a crystalized iron core, within the already solid inner core.

Oh look! A Wikipedia article that answers that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_distribution_on_Earth?wprov=sfti1#

Of course there’s theories out there that say there’s a lot more water in the earth than we’ve been able to calculate.

Real answer is that our best educated guesses are still that.

Liquid doesn't mean just water. I think what op was getting at that the molten core of the earth is in liquid(-ish?) form, thus the water balloon idea.

Nah, it’s more like a wet baseball. Only 0.02% water by mass. Source

Edit: My bad, you asked about liquid, not just water, so this is less relevant but I’ll leave it as some trivia.

I was referring to the stuff under the earths crust not the slime on top :P

Depends upon how you're seeing liquid. If you just mean water, definitely not. If you mean things that behave like liquids behave or are in their liquid phase (is magma liquid here?) then I'm not sure