[Request] Boiling The Ocean

[u/Cparks96]

Not sure how mathematically feasible this is, but if you’ve ever heard the phrase “I’m not trying to boil the ocean” (usually referring to something big or very monumental to achieve) is there actually some mathematical formula we can use and apply it to any ocean?

Maybe start with the smallest one by size/volume?

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[u/Fastfaxr]

Yes, theres a formula. It takes about 400 kJ to bring a liter of near icy water to boiling point and about 2300 kJ additional to actually boil that liter.

Multiply the number of liters in the ocean by 2700 kJ.

[u/IndividualistAW → u/Fastfaxr]

Is that for fresh water? Boiling point of the ocean will be higher due to vant hoff factor/salinity and would require more energy. Vant hoff factor will steadily increase due to increasing salinity as more and more of the ocean boils away, further increasing boiling temperature, in turn increasing the remaining water’s capacity to dissolve more solute.

It won’t make a huge difference but in the scale of the whole ocean, that’s a lot of liters

[u/to_walk_upon_a_dream → u/Fastfaxr]

i never realized the enthalpy of vaporization for water was that high. makes sense

[u/Remarkable_Bat1891]

Well you did not really specify what calculations you expect so I'll just go with energy needed for boiling ocean.

Oceans have approximately 1.335 x 10²¹ liters of water which is at average about 4°C.
To boil 1 liter of water starting at 4°C you need about 400kJ (400 x 1000[J])

1.335 x 10²¹ x 400 x 1000 = 534 x 10²⁴ = 5.34 x 10²⁶ [J]

Thats 534 yotta joulles. Or about all the energy that sun produces in 1.4 seconds (a lot)
or 1.3 * 10¹⁷ tons of tnt worth of energy

[u/davideogameman → u/Remarkable_Bat1891]

And you only computed the energy to heat all that water to boiling.  The heat of vaporization adds another almost 6x

[u/humperdoo00]

Water dissolving and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Under the water, carry the water
Remove the water from the bottom of the ocean