At the mention of global sea level rise, human beings are scratching their hair bald, especially the island nations in the South Pacific. So if this time tells mankind that sea levels may fall someday, it will undoubtedly be a shocking good news.

But one might also ask, how do sea levels fall? Did the water refreeze? No, the Earth itself "swallows" the water. The "Earth swallowing water" sounds incredible, but geologists have found that if the Earth swallowed according to this momentum, it should be possible to achieve a balance between the rise and fall of the sea level, and then mankind no longer have to worry about being submerged.

Mariana Trench

The roof of the world is the Tibetan Plateau, where there is the highest point on earth, Mount Everest, at 8,848.86 meters above sea level, while the lowest point in the world is located in the Marianas Trench, with the deepest point at about 11 kilometers below sea level. Interestingly, the height difference between Mount Everest and the Marianas Trench is about 20,000 meters, a figure that meets the height of the earth's sediment filling the ocean for hundreds of millions of years.

The Marianas Trench is located in the western Pacific Ocean, close to Japan and the Philippines, with the Marianas Islands on the sea. It is 2,550 kilometers long and has an average width of 70 kilometers. Geologists analyze the rocks at the bottom of the trench and conclude that it should be about 60 million years old, making it a relatively young trench for the Earth.

From sea level down to 2,000 meters, it is a scene of vibrant bobbies, with all the marine life we know, various fish, squid, octopus and sperm whales. 2,000 to 3,000 meters is where the largemouth spoonbill appears. 4,000 meters onwards, the water starts to get darker, the pressure increases, the variety of creatures starts to decrease and the skeletons start to become clear.

The ocean below 8,000 meters is not only dark, there is also about 1,000 atmospheres of water pressure, the amazing thing is that there are still animals living at this depth. 2014 biologists found lionfish on the seabed at 8,145 meters, a new record for the depth of animal habitation in the Marianas Trench. But the wonders of the Marianas Trench go far beyond that.

On May 28, 2019, members of the Chinese ocean-going research vessel "Science" discovered nearly 10 colorful coral forests on the seamounts south of the Mariana Trench.

This newly discovered "underwater garden" has turned the speculation about the desolation of the deep Marianas Trench on its head. The Marianas Trench is also seismically prone and is located in the Pacific Rim seismic zone, which also affects Japan and the Philippines, where earthquakes often occur. That's why geologists have installed seismic detectors deep in the trench to constantly monitor changes in the earth's crust.

The device came back with worrying news that there is a "bell" echoing in the depths of the trench, is it the death knell of the Earth?

Abyssal swallowing of water

The bells of the Marianas Trench attracted geologists to explore it, and they tried to link this with earthquakes. As exploration ships from various countries continued to dive, it was discovered that the bells were actually the trench "swallowing water".

The formation of the Marianas Trench is inextricably linked to crustal changes. Simply put, our planet is made up of six plates that are stitched together: the Asian-European plate, the African plate, the Indian Ocean plate, the Pacific plate, the American plate and the Antarctic plate.

The so-called plates are not necessarily all land, and the Pacific plate is almost entirely oceanic. Around the Jurassic period, the Atlantic Ocean was still just a narrow strait, and as the American plate continued to drift westward, the Pacific plate was forced to drift westward.

The Asian-European plate as a whole is drifting eastward, which led to the Pacific plate and the Asian-European plate will intensify the extrusion, and finally about 60 million years ago, the extrusion reached a level that the crust could not bear, the Pacific plate inserted under the Asian-European plate.

This extrusion point is where the Marianas Trench is now, and it has become deeper and deeper over tens of millions of years. Our earth is not as hard as we think, there is about 100 km thick soft current layer under the crust, located on the surface of the earth's upper mantle, with a temperature of 700 to 1300 degrees Celsius. The Pacific plate, which is inserted below the Asian and European plates, melted into the soft current layer, and a "wound" was formed at this time, so that seawater flowed into the soft current layer and water swallowing occurred.

According to the cooperation of geologists and oceanographers, the Marianas Trench "swallows" about 300 million tons of water per year, which is not the sum of the global "swallowed" seawater, because the "swallowing" phenomenon is also occurring at the junction of other plates, so that the calculation, the global sea level will drop.

Where does the water go?

After research, we know that the seawater through the plate junction of the "wound" into the soft flow layer, so the water went to the mantle, but the loading capacity of the mantle is limited, the Earth has 4.6 billion years of history, does the mantle will not be filled with water in the meantime? The answer is no, then the water swallowed by the trench, where will it finally go?

The soft current layer in the upper mantle is mobile, that is, the seawater swallowed by the Mariana Trench may go to other places with the flow of the soft current layer, such as the Vesuvian volcano, which spews water back to the surface of the earth's crust through volcanic eruptions, and then returns to the sea through the water cycle.

Secondly, plate junctions are not always where extrusion occurs ablation, it may also occur where plates separate. For example, the eastern part of the American plate borders the western part of the Asian-European plate, and they are moving away from each other, which leads to a huge rift in the Atlantic Ocean floor. It's equivalent to being torn open, and the soft current layer spurts out of the crack like blood, along with the water it absorbs.

Therefore, the Earth's water is actually constant, how much water is "swallowed" in, how much water is "spit" out, but there is a time difference, there will be a lowering of the sea level. The history of the Earth did happen inexplicable drop in sea level, at the end of the Ordovician period, there was a very violent plate movement, a large amount of seawater was swallowed, resulting in a drop in sea level, when all the animals with insufficient mobility could not retreat and were extinct, such as most trilobites.

Is it good or bad

Since such a plate movement will make the sea level fall within a certain time frame, now global warming sea level rise, countries are facing enormous pressure, this time the Earth "swallowing water" is obviously a good thing, it can slow down the rate of sea level rise, to buy time for us to think of ways. In the short term, it is indeed a good thing, but in the long term, the Earth "swallowing water" is a bad thing.

First of all, the Earth's water is conserved. Perhaps the Marianas Trench will swallow a large amount of water in a violent plate movement, allowing the sea level to drop, but the soft current layer will not lock up this water. They will be returned to the earth's crust in other forms elsewhere, that is, the water returns from where it came. And the water melted by the glaciers is a real increment, and unless it turns back to ice, sea level rise is irreversible.

Secondly, the "water swallowing" is accompanied by plate movements, which can lead to geological disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis, causing serious harm to people in the nearby sea and land. The Philippines and Japan, which are the closest to the Marianas Trench, will be hit by huge disasters.

Finally, the plate movement will not only cause geological disasters, but also change the shape of the Earth. Our land in the billions of years of the Earth's history, the long division will be united and will be divided, the current appearance of the Earth's seven continents and four oceans is only a certain form of the Earth at this time.

Geologists have found that the Atlantic Ocean is constantly expanding while the Pacific Ocean has been shrinking, and it may only take a few million years for the Pacific Ocean to disappear completely, and the Atlantic Ocean will become the world's largest ocean, and by then the American continent will be connected to Eurasia.

The "Bells" in the Pacific Ocean

The Marianas are not the only trench on earth, there are other trenches on earth, coincidentally, the world's top ten trenches, except the Puerto Rico Trench is located in the Atlantic Ocean, the other nine all exist in the Pacific Ocean. They emit different "bells" depending on the depth, playing together the song of the plates at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. This also confirms the geologists' theory that the Pacific plate is melting and will disappear completely in millions of years, and the Atlantic Ocean will replace it as the largest ocean.

But the Earth doesn't care if the Pacific Ocean is the largest or the Atlantic Ocean is the largest, it continues its undersea "concert". We can take this as a narcissism of the Earth, which applauds itself for creating these underwater wonders; or we can take the "bell" at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean as a warning that the Earth is "swallowing water", and also to let humans understand that "The water comes from where it comes from and goes back to where it came from, and the water comes from the glaciers at the poles where we are rising.

Global Warming

In summary, "water swallowing" will indeed make the sea level drop, but that is only temporary, the water will eventually return to the ocean, the real way to make the sea level drop is to let the melting glaciers refreeze back.

Global warming is the most serious crisis facing mankind. The cause is the excessive use of fossil energy by mankind since the beginning of the industrial revolution, which released the carbon stored in the earth's crust, releasing them into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide, breaking the earth's own carbon cycle, causing the greenhouse effect to intensify and the temperature to rise.

Global warming will trigger a chain reaction, starting with global climate change triggering extreme weather that threatens human agricultural activities. Some 3 billion people worldwide are in a food crisis, and dramatic weather changes will undoubtedly add to this plight. Then there is the global ocean currents chaos, overheated currents will harm the plankton in the ocean, especially in cold water waters, where most of the animals in the ocean feed on it.

Plankton is the bottom of the food chain, from the bottom to start disintegrating, then the entire ecosystem will collapse, and humans will not be spared. Finally, there is a serious glacial melting sea level rise. This process will continue for a long time, more desperate than the previous two, watching the land area is getting smaller and smaller.

In order not to let the tragedy happen, more than 200 countries and regions around the world have chosen to join forces to combat carbon emissions and restore the planet's carbon balance. Since excess carbon dioxide is caused by the burning of fossil energy, it is important to reduce fossil energy consumption at the source and switch to clean energy sources such as solar, wind and hydro energy.

There are not enough trees in the world to maintain the carbon balance, so let's increase their number, so countries are planting trees to increase forest cover. Although it has been less than ten years since the introduction of global warming and the signing of the contract, the feedback from countries is good. Humans are now optimistic about global warming.

Concluding remarks

We live on a wonderful planet that not only provides us with the necessary water resources, but also "tastes" water itself. But compared to human wastefulness, it has made the most of what it has, taking from the sea and using it to sustain itself for billions of years. The Earth itself has gone through sea level rise, so it doesn't care, just as it doesn't care if the Pacific Ocean disappears, and it doesn't care if humans can afford the hazards of sea level rise.

This "bell" from the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean appeared just in time for us to realize our mistakes and correct them, so that humanity did not fall into the abyss of eternal destruction. This is a unique reminder of the Earth!