Sitemap

Member-only story

What would happen if more than 90 percent of the earth’s surface was land?

3 min readFeb 12, 2024

If the Earth’s surface were 10% covered with water instead of ~70%, then the planet would be going through geological and/or astronomical phases that would already be making our time on this planet very uncomfortable.

The Earth’s surface would look something like this:

Actually, here I have simply lowered the mean sea level by 5,000 meters.

Possible (and plausible) causes:

Scenario 1. Earth is heading toward an out-of-control greenhouse effect like the one that characterizes Venus.
This will happen in one to two billion years, however, with increased solar activity triggering a positive feedback loop of rising temperatures.
Since the Earth has a magnetic field, however, water is not broken down by the Sun, but the increase in temperature results in substantial evaporation.
I believe that 10% liquid water on the surface may correspond to a planet still habitable for us humans, at least far from the tropics. I cannot determine whether extreme weather phenomena can occur in this situation.
It is perhaps what the situation will be in 650–700 million years.

Giuseppe Frisella
Giuseppe Frisella

Written by Giuseppe Frisella

I'm a curious person and I'm on Medium mainly to read and share thoughts and knowledge. I love science, especially physics and evolutionary biology.