Episode

Lindy Elkins-Tanton on the Origin of Earth's Water

Podcast
Geology Bites
Published
Mar 27, 2025
Duration seconds
1230
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/geologybites/episodes/Lindy-Elkins-Tanton-on-the-Origin-of-Earths-Water-e30okv1
Audio
https://anchor.fm/s/80e7bb4/podcast/play/100471201/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-2-27%2F9ab9355b-72f3-415c-e9f2-e246da82027f.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/geology-bites-159592/episodes/lindy-elkins-tanton-on-the-origin-of-earth-s-water
Markdown
/podcast/geology-bites-159592/lindy-elkins-tanton-on-the-origin-of-earth-s-water.md

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Summary

The planets formed out of a cloud of gas and dust around the nascent Sun. Within the so-called snow line, it was too hot for liquid water to exist. Since the Earth lies well within this line, why does it have water? Did it somehow manage to retain water from the outset or did it acquire its water later? In the podcast, Lindy Elkins-Tanton explains how these two scenarios might have played out but she says the evidence strongly favors one of these theories. Elkins-Tanton has concentrated much of her research career on the formation and evolution of planets, and especially the role of water. She is a Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and Principal Investigator of the NASA Psyche mission.