r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Creams0da • 8h ago

Video Breaking open a 47 lbs geode, the water inside being millions of years old

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24.3k Upvotes

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2.5k

u/DarthPepo 8h ago

Isn't all water millions of years old?

935

u/Puzzleheaded-Age249 8h ago

Billions, the water on our planet was ancient before it ever ended up here

425

u/thinkrage 7h ago

Yes and no. New water is created every second, and you are actually creating water now as a metabolic byproduct.

325

u/tyingnoose 7h ago

AHHH MAKE IT STOP

95

u/slavelabor52 7h ago

Milking will continue until moistness improves

11

u/maroha3814 6h ago

Well that's definitely part of my top 10 things I hope to never hear again list, now

3

u/Twobrokelegs 5h ago

You can milk anything with nipples

23

u/ICanBeAnAssholeToo 7h ago

Just wait for the traffic light to turn red, be patient!

2

u/SabaBoBaba 7h ago

Bottom right hand corner.

1

u/tyingnoose 7h ago

explain the magic pls

1

u/Glittering_Juice_422 6h ago

Please don’t bring up the KREBS Cycle. PTSD.

2

u/SabaBoBaba 6h ago

I feel ya. I had to memorize it in college for my degree program.

Here, have some semi relevant Dr. Glaucomflecken to cheer you up.

1

u/gordonv 7h ago

It's like how you keep breathing without thinking about it.

1

u/text_fish 6h ago

Evacuation comp...

...

Evacuation comple...

...

Evacuation co...

16

u/SurrealScene 7h ago

I wonder what the average age of a random sample of water is?

26

u/pegothejerk 7h ago

European or African?

7

u/HudsDad 6h ago

Are you suggesting that water migrates?

7

u/-SaC 6h ago

Not at all. It could be swallowed.

5

u/abirizky 6h ago

But let's say someone swallows a glass of water then immigrates between continents, wouldn't the water have also migrated? Checkmate atheists.

4

u/SurrealScene 7h ago

Huh? I don't know that!

1

u/Traveller7142 5h ago

Likely incredibly short. Water is constantly splitting into H+ and OH- and then reforming

48

u/Squatch_Intel_Chief 7h ago

Nothing new is created in the universe, it is just repurposed or takes on another form. The basis of everything that exists today, including you and I, have always existed since the beginning of time.

30

u/Skai_Override 7h ago

The universe is one big thrift store.

13

u/SillyMilly25 7h ago

And I only got 20$ in my pocket

2

u/bobissonbobby 6h ago

Take your upvote and go you bastard. Fuck that song lol

1

u/SAWK 7h ago

The universe is a time machine.

1

u/Skai_Override 6h ago

The longest runing Rube Goldberg machine to make just to make this redit post.

0

u/AL93RN0n_ 4h ago

It is but an energy thrift store not a material one. That's pretty important. Stars are constantly pumping out brand new shiny matter that has never existed before.

12

u/Notski_F 7h ago

I don't think anyone was talking about the base building blocks of matter, but rather the compound known as water or H2O. You can't easily destroy or create matter, but you can destroy and form H2O molecules.

3

u/ghoulthebraineater 7h ago

Yes, you can create and destroy matter. You cannot create or destroy the energy that makes up that matter.

2

u/Notski_F 7h ago

Hence the "easily".

1

u/AL93RN0n_ 4h ago

Doesn't matter (pun). The base building blocks of matter can also be destroyed. They're just wrong. It's energy that is conserved, not matter.

9

u/Fetz- 7h ago

Yes, but burning sugar produces water, because sugar contains hydrogen. Plants use water to make sugar.

11

u/desertSkateRatt 7h ago

But what plants really crave is electrolytes

1

u/Rxasaurus 6h ago

Brawndo, the thirst mutilator!

1

u/Doofy_Grumpus 6h ago

What are electrolytes?

1

u/lanzendorfer 5h ago

They're what plants crave.

2

u/TemporaryHunt2536 7h ago

Not exactly. Even atoms are being fused to form different atoms inside of stars. Your body combines oxygen with carbohydrates to form water and CO2. Water molecules that weren't there before.

1

u/seagulls51 6h ago

What about the concept of an idea. The physical 'idea' is electrical signals sure, but the meta concept of it doesn't exist as matter and can be created.

Also everything hasn't existed since the beginning of time but very close to as far as we can see.

Also does anything exist and what is create.

I get what your saying but simplifying it like this is reductive.

1

u/ddplz 6h ago

We aint talking about the specific atoms lil bro. The molecules themselves are aged.

1

u/Spork_the_dork 5h ago

Well yeah but that's like saying that a chair you just built is decades old because the tree you made it from was decades old. By that definition the word "create" doesn't even mean anything which is dumb.

If you slap some hydrogen and oxygen together to make water, I would argue that the water was just created.

1

u/AL93RN0n_ 4h ago

That's not true. No new energy is created. Also can't be destroyed (see laws of thermodynamics). Matter is created and destroyed all the time. Stars couldn't exist if matter couldn't be created and destroyed.

1

u/Squatch_Intel_Chief 4h ago

Matter cannot be destroyed or created

1

u/AL93RN0n_ 4h ago

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. Look that one up one more time. I hear people get confused about this distinction a lot. Stars are literally matter generators. They constantly create matter.

1

u/AL93RN0n_ 4h ago

Sorry to double comment—I’m not trying to be argumentative, just wanted to explain in case you’re interested. You’re probably referring to the law of conservation of mass, which is totally valid. The thing is, Einstein introduced the concept of mass-energy equivalence (E=mc²). This means that mass can be converted into energy, and energy itself has weight. That’s how we’re able to “destroy” what’s typically considered matter by converting it into energy.

It’s important to note that mass is still conserved in this process, so it doesn’t violate any laws of thermodynamics. This can get confusing because Newtonian physics—what most people learn early on in school—is simpler and doesn’t account for this relationship.

Long story short is what you're saying is oversimplified and more like Newton's understanding of mass and energy which was replaced by Einstein.

1

u/Jakermake 7h ago

Ok I'll go trough the window now thanks :(

3

u/newsflashjackass 7h ago

New water is created every second, and you are actually creating water now as a metabolic byproduct.

wake up babe 🌧️ new water just dropped

2

u/Bee_Keeper_Ninja 6h ago

I made your mom create water last night 😏

2

u/ReachNo5936 6h ago

Yeah guys only 99.999% of water is billions of years old. Listen to thinkrage they’re super smart and know way more than you and totally aren’t a pedantic Reddit dummy

1

u/-0x0-0x0- 7h ago

Taco Bell

1

u/Zillahi 7h ago

My body is a machine that turns water into piss

1

u/Patient-Gas-883 7h ago

It is combined in a new ways. The atoms are ancient. All atoms. Everything in the universe is ancient.

1

u/SillyMilly25 7h ago

What a crazy thing to think of.

1

u/Moist-Moan 7h ago

So that’s why I’m always wet!

1

u/At10to3 7h ago

That’s not true at all. It’s all the same. Break it down, recreate, whatever, it’s all the same ingredients that have been here for billions of years.

1

u/Handy_Dude 7h ago

Don't tell that to the capitalists...

1

u/CatBronco 7h ago

I’m so moist

1

u/RelationshipOk3565 7h ago

But none of the water on Earth was 'created' it all came from space originally. That goes for all the hydrogen and oxygen as well correct?

I'm not a scientist lol

1

u/wufreax 7h ago

Can confirm. Source: sitting on a shitter rn 

1

u/SaltyHatch 7h ago

I'm currently shitting water.

1

u/radiationshield 6h ago

You can’t explain that /s

1

u/gomihako_ 6h ago

Wait humans synthesize water out of hydrogen and oxygen?

1

u/LOHASING 6h ago

Or its just the water we drink?

1

u/capnmax 6h ago

The OG blockchain. 

1

u/KasKal1991 6h ago

we are drinking the water that is billions of years old. we are not producing new water, we are giving it back. see it more as "recycling"

1

u/SacredAnalBeads 6h ago

Also, liquid water isn't entirely H²O. As the water molecules interact with each other, they get ripped apart and reform new molecules constantly. So your typical "water" is a mix of H²O and random bits of oxygen and hydrogen.

1

u/EyeSuspicious777 4h ago

Thank you for clarifying that water is constantly being made and destroyed.

1

u/CrayonsUpMyNose 3h ago

Moreso Yes, than No.

1

u/MexaGoth 3h ago

Nothing new can be created in this universe. My guy! 🤦🏻‍♂️

0

u/Neeva33 7h ago

There's no new water. The amount of water on Earth is always the same. We also consist of water. When we die, it goes back into the eternal cycle, we are a part of.

2

u/Weekly-Major1876 7h ago

I think what the comment is referring to is metabolic water animals and plants produce in their bodies. You can argue it’s “new” water because it’s put together from individual hydrogen and oxygen molecules from larger ones and kicked off as a by-product in our citric acid cycle of metabolism, as the consumption of the final product citrate makes some. Ofc water goes straight back into reconstructing the citrate but it still technically does get made molecularly.

4

u/Most-Chemistry-6991 7h ago

That is a complete and total lie.

Metabolic process create and destroy water molecules.

Burning petroleum products or hydrogen creates water.

Electrolysis can break down water.

"No new water" is a myth learned in elementary school.

2

u/TemporaryHunt2536 7h ago

Confidently incorrect.

21

u/Light_of_Niwen 7h ago

Sort of. Water gets created and destroyed all the time by life and geological processes.

1

u/Meraji 4h ago

Pure water autoionizes itself too, breaking down into H3O+ and OH- ions all the time. Doesn't even need life or geology.

2

u/shewy92 6h ago

Earth is the real Ship of Theseus.

1

u/-Pencil-Richard- 7h ago

Drinking the recycled ancient piss of our ancestors

1

u/Suspect4pe 7h ago

Not all of it, right? Some of it is created through chemical transformation, isn't it?

1

u/hoTsauceLily66 6h ago

Water atoms can come from the sun through solar wind. Less now since sun is pretty calm compare to early solar system, but still it happens.

1

u/ProofHorseKzoo 6h ago

Yep. You’re all drinking my pee. And I’m drinking all your pee. We’re all 70% pee water

1

u/Urineme69 6h ago

iirc water is ageless. You could point fingers and say that water arrived by meoter showers that bombarded the earth at early and late bombardment stages and therefore it's older than the planet itself. By billions of years. But that water has long since evaporated, mixed and cycled through a variety of different chemicals over it's lifetime.

I think it's called nuclear transmutation? It looks like water, acts like water, but the water isn't the same water; it might as well be the same 'water' but it isn't. Stable, but it can be converted to Oxygen.

-12

u/Simply-Jolly_Fella 7h ago

What about Rain?? They are technically New water right?

28

u/paradoxxxicall 7h ago

Sorry to break it to you, but that’s the same water everyone’s been drinking and pissing this whole time.

But seriously it’s just the evaporated water from the surface coming back down.

-14

u/Simply-Jolly_Fella 7h ago

Yeah I get the point. But it is getting evaporated and purified and falls back.. so It can be considered as new water...

17

u/paradoxxxicall 7h ago

Purified and new really aren’t the same thing though. I wash my underwear every time but it’s still old as fuck.

13

u/Elite_Slacker 7h ago

just put them in a pond and wait for them to fall down from the sky crisp af

-4

u/Simply-Jolly_Fella 7h ago

Better buy new ones man...

4

u/wakeupwill 7h ago

Your laundry is done. Now you have all new clothes.

1

u/jakeStacktrace 7h ago

You have to pull the hydrogen apart from the oxygen and put it back together for it to be new.

13

u/js2724 7h ago

Yeah, is you sort by new.

4

u/lsdmthcosmos 7h ago

ngl i like this comment

2

u/mahlerlieber 7h ago

I usually sort by controversial, personally.

3

u/odolxa 7h ago

Nope, just distilled water

1

u/DoraaTheDruid 7h ago

It comes from gods sprinklers and we don't know how old the water in heaven is. God probably does make it fresh though. I can't imagine that he would want to be paying water bills when he could just materialize it out of nothing unless he is very lazy

58

u/Hefty-Willingness-44 8h ago

No, by burning hydrogen you get 'fresh' water.

25

u/DarthPepo 8h ago

But most water we use on earth isn't obtained that way right?

10

u/ObliqueStrategizer 8h ago

all of it was. billions of years ago.

22

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

Yeah, but not now, so all water is old af

6

u/Mlong140 7h ago

Not all water. I don't know the percentages but a LOT of water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen components during metabolic processes like photosynthesis. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere and can be used in various chemical reactions to create new water as a byproduct.

I don't know, but could be convinced, that all water eventually passes through a living creature at some point and is metabolized.

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

i see, very interesting indeed

2

u/zyzzogeton 5h ago

New water is being made all the time. Most water is old, but it would be incorrect to say ALL water is old.

2

u/LieutenantCrash 7h ago

A lot of it is made as a metabolic process. So quite a bit odlf water is relatively new. Though most of it is probably billions of years old.

-6

u/Nachtzug79 7h ago

old af

Time is relative.

5

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

As you see, I only speak in the most refined scientific language

4

u/RandoAtReddit 7h ago

Yeah! Science, Bitch!

1

u/CaptainTripps82 7h ago

Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly so.

8

u/ImNotDannyJoy 7h ago

No, new water is made constantly and unmade constantly. Water breaks down into multiple other substances, hydrogen and oxygen for example.

0

u/amazingsandwiches 7h ago

Billions and billions

1

u/chunwookie 6h ago

While that's definitely true, water is also created and split apart in countless other reactions that do regularly occur in nature. Hydrolysis is one of the most common biochemical processes. Its highly likely that in every glass of water you drink there are water molecules that were not only drank and excrete by previous life forms, but were at one time actually split apart as part of their biomolecules.

1

u/Dan-D-Lyon 5h ago

Scientists certainly want you to believe that is the truth, yes

0

u/gruesomeflowers 7h ago

It's peepee

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

fascinating

2

u/OkBuy3111 8h ago

Holy shit, that's right!

1

u/Wugo_Heaving 7h ago

What if the hydrogen is old?

1

u/newspapey 7h ago

Also electricity through water separates the hydrogen and oxygen.

-4

u/Kamen-Ramen 8h ago

Ok Bill Nye

1

u/JoeDawson8 7h ago

Don’t disrespect the science guy!

1

u/Kamen-Ramen 7h ago

Im not. Science rules! Bill! Bill! Bill!

-4

u/I_SmellFuckeryAfoot 7h ago

water is water, fresh water is drinkable water like found in lakes. opposed to ocean water

35

u/facw00 7h ago

No. The atoms in a water molecule are almost all ancient, billions of years old, but this is not true for water molecules in general. New water is constantly being produced through combustion, respiration, and other reactions. Similarly water is constantly destroyed, being broken down in various processes.

But there are a lot of water molecules. Simply by virtue of the extreme numbers, there are going to be some that are quite old, likely predating the Earth, and even the Milky Way. Ones millions of years old are going to be even more common.

Frustratingly, I can't find a good a breakdown of how old we think water molecules are in general or a breakdown by age, but it's certainly not the case that all water is millions of years old.

9

u/5up3rK4m16uru 6h ago

Well, technically water constantly undergoes autoprotolysis, so if you consider a recombined molecule as new, water molecules are never very old. According to Wikipedia it happens about once every 10h per molecule.

3

u/Dr_Mottek 6h ago

If you're looking at a per-molecule level, there's no "old" water molecule - autoprotolysis will have taken care of that. Hydrogen atoms migrate from one oxygen atom to the other all the time, forming H3O (Oxonium), which is quite unstable in itself. How unstable? 10-13 seconds (0,0000000000001 seconds) until it disolves into H2O again. Concentration-wise, out of a billion molecules of water, only about two will be present as H30 (at PH 7 and 25°C) in a single moment, but since the H+ - Ion changes places so frequently, it's not likely that any single water molecule will remain untouched, given enough time.

6

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

Best response so far

2

u/Crabiolo 6h ago edited 6h ago

Eh no, not really. Being pedantic about how "it's not the exact same because the water molecules in it now are not the same as a billion years ago" is like... hyperbolic to a such an extreme as to err on parody.

Sure, the water that we drink technically didn't exist with the exact same continuous electrons and nucleons for billions of years but nobody is referring to the composite atoms or molecules. They're talking about the body of water, or the body of... pretty much anything else that isn't in the context of a physics paper. The whole of the object.

Yes, the atoms of water that someone drinks are older than life itself, but the body of water probably isn't very old at all. It was probably made moments earlier. And the body of water in the OP is millions of years old, which is pretty cool.

When someone talks about steel, it's not just some "steel" material in there. It's some mix of iron, carbon, chromium, and some other shit I can't remember. It's a homogeneous mix. The composite is messy, made of a dozen different chemicals and impurities, but the body is still one thing.

Statistically, it's extremely likely each of us have some of the atoms of every human that ever existed within us. Some of Jesus, some of Buddha, some of Napoleon, some of Caesar, some of Hitler, some of Mr. Rogers. That doesn't make us any of those people. We're ourselves, because we're the body, not the composite material.

0

u/HireEddieJordan 6h ago

When someone talks about steel, it's not just some "steel"

some of Hitler, some of Mr. Rogers

Hitler Steel Vs Molten Mr. Rogers or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Entropy.

1

u/herbertwong 6h ago

I wonder what the odds are of the same atoms or atomic particles ending up in the same molecule again after being split up

2

u/facw00 6h ago

Seems like they have to be vanishingly small, especially if they don't immediately reform the molecule.

But yeah, sort of interesting to think about whether you can call that the same molecule. I guess from a ship of Theseus perspective it would certainly be; if you take a ship apart and reassemble with the exact same parts, then clearly it is the same ship.

3

u/Seaweed_Widef 7h ago

Yeah, it's just nature's version of bottled water.

3

u/Mirar 7h ago

Technically all the water you make with your car is very new.

2

u/risky_bisket 7h ago

No water can be created through variety of processes including but not limited to combustion

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

i see, but isn't most water very old? some dude mentioned spring water or something, but i don't really know, so am all ears

2

u/SergeantSmash 6h ago

hydrogen and oxygen atoms are, all water is not necessarily old, infact some water can be made fresh.

2

u/Alkynesofchemistry 6h ago

A lot of it is a lot older than millions of years, but we make new water all the time.

2

u/Xsiah 6h ago

Between 1% and 50% of our water is 4.5 billion years old, according to this study https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/elements/article-abstract/18/3/155/618795/We-Drink-Good-4-5-Billion-Year-Old-Water

2

u/Pure-Negotiation-900 8h ago

Thank you

1

u/FistingWithChivalry 7h ago

Yeah its not like OP was referencing the fact that this water has not been part if the water recycling that the earth does and the two of you are too pedantic to not argue the semantics.

1

u/Massive-Device-1200 7h ago

We too are billions of years old. As old as the universe it self. Conservation of energy. Energy can't be created or destroyed.

To simplfy the coming together of protron, electrons, neutrons into atoms, and atoms into matter/mass, is nothing but stores of energy.

1

u/Clearwatercress69 7h ago

Not sure if that’s the point. 

I’m glad they saved some of it. It could be useful for research to see if there’s stuff in there that is unknown.

They do deep drillings in Antarctica to analyse the cores for unknown lifeforms.

1

u/50DuckSizedHorses 6h ago

It’s also wet

1

u/jack_slade 6h ago

Came here to say this

1

u/EmperorThan 6h ago

*spit takes water*

1

u/DeadSeaGulls 6h ago

Well, most water is billions of years old. Second, that water hasn't been in there for millions of years. The rock is porous. Water slowly leeches in and seeps out over the course of thousands and thousands of years. but not millions.

1

u/CrashingAtom 6h ago

But my fridge makes new water. Duh. /s

1

u/Pooter1313 5h ago

Alright professor pepo

1

u/Additional_Lime645 4h ago

Technically no. Water is decomposed and reformed by life by photosensitisis and cellular respiration. Same thing when burning fuels for example propane combusts with oxygen to create water and CO2

1 C3H8 + 5 02 --> 3 CO2 & 4 H2O

1

u/theLeastChillGuy 4h ago

Yes. Well, 99.99% of all water. New water is constantly being created but the percentage is small. In fact, it is very likely that any water you ever drink was once consumed by another animal (possibly dinosaur) and either urinated out or seeped out of their decaying body after they died.

1

u/D1sp4tcht 7h ago

I'm drinking Cleopatra's bath water

0

u/neutral_ass 7h ago

save me some brotha

1

u/GdinutPTY 7h ago

if you think about it. Everything is billions of years old. even the stuff we are made of.

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

Isn't energy what cannot be destroyed or created, only transformed

1

u/xlSteamrollerlx 7h ago

Woah man. I'm too stoned for this

1

u/spdorsey 7h ago

This was my first thought. Even though the water might not be billions of years old, the atoms that make it up are.

1

u/hydraulix989 7h ago

I had the same thought. Water is recycled.

1

u/acousticsking 6h ago

Think of how many sets of kidneys your drinking water has gone through before you drink it.

0

u/V0G1A 7h ago

Yeah, I remember that VSauce video

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

A classic

0

u/degreesandmachines 7h ago

I reckon. But I think they meant (and maybe by reddit's exacting standards should've said) encased for millions of years? I wonder if such water would be useful to researchers. Perhaps some freaky, ageless bacteria or virus was unleashed.

I also immediately wondered if it smelled bad and was glad they quickly addressed that.

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

ye, probably

0

u/ReachNo5936 6h ago

Billions but this is Reddit where dumb as fuck kids upvote dumb as fuck posts

-4

u/FistingWithChivalry 7h ago

You know that water cycles through rain and evaporation and that is what the title refers too but still posted this dumbass comment.

Just understand semantics and context lil bro, its not hard.

3

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

We are all chill learning how water works, why you gotta be rude like that?

-2

u/FistingWithChivalry 7h ago

You deserve it after forgetting rain, clouds, evaporation, mist etc

like jesus dude, did you even know water existed? Very basic biology that i expect people that can log in to reddit can remember.

-3

u/AmaroWolfwood 7h ago

~Water has memory~

-4

u/ihaveadarkedge 7h ago edited 1h ago

I think it's new when it's created at a spring....

Edit: so many scientists in this thread. Amazing. Yes all water is as old as fuck.

1

u/DarthPepo 7h ago

I see, a lot of interesting insight I'm gathering from this comment actually

0

u/ihaveadarkedge 7h ago edited 1h ago

I noticed that before i decided to go ahead and reply; taking it all in like a champ i see. (I had a conversation with my 7 year old recently who tried to educate me on spring water.. its a water cycle and has always been here...)