Dear Dr,

[anatolio]

How do water molecules behave under extreme gravity?

I thank the attention.

 

[IG2007]

What do you mean to say by that? Water molecules act as they are supposed to.

If you mean blackholes by extreme gravity, then, it's an interesting thing. A water molecule will be ripped apart. The gravity is going to be so strong that, even the protons, neutrons and electrons will be ripped off. They will go down to an even smaller form, known as quark. I don't know how far it breaks down, but, I guess, they will break to the quark level at least. The quarks are gonna zip around the blackholes until they are gobbled up by the blackhole.

 

[dfjchem721]

How do water molecules behave under extreme gravity?

I thank the attention.

Perhaps anatolio means under "normal" circumstances, outside the black hole gravity.

It seems that with sufficient gravity, water molecules, behaving as liquid water, might actually "freeze" solid due to enormous pressure that is high enough to effect their "activity", but too low to cause them to penetrate electron orbitals.

Recall the colligative properties of water. If you decrease pressure, you decrease the boiling point. So if you increase pressure, you increase the boiling point. This is due to the activity of water. It cannot become a solid unless you suppress the vibrational, translational and rotational energies that make it liquid under the right conditions.

It seems possible that at high enough pressure, liquid water would solidify.

 

[COLGeek]

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[dfjchem721]

How do water molecules behave under extreme gravity?

I thank the attention.

'


For a complete understanding of the various phases of water at different temperatures and pressures, check out the link below.

It shows that water will indeed freeze (solid form), even at substantial temperatures, if the pressure is high enough.

Phase diagram of water (simplified)

Of course you can always get a second opinion.

 

[Geomartian]

In geology the same chemical starting solutions can take on different structures (minerals) according to the amount of pressure it is subjected to. If a lower energy crystal arrangement is possible (at extreme pressure) the bonds of the hydrogen to the oxygen molecules might be broken.

What if water takes on a crystalline structure? The problem is the hydrogen which can only bond to one atom. Under extreme pressure the oxygen molecules might change valence and form a crystal. Then shove the hydrogen atoms into the interstitial spaces in the lattice. Hydrogen can also exist as protium in a solid. Acting more like a charge carrier than an atom.

I would want a lot of distance between me and any such experiment. Protium and Deuterium can be… unpredictable.

 

[Catastrophe]

"In geology the same chemical starting solutions can take on different structures (minerals) according to the amount of pressure it is subjected to."

I am pleased to note that phase diagrams have been invented