[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-135653-105":59,"doc-detail-135653-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","water-versus-land-on-temperate-rocky-planets-review-article","Water Versus Land on Temperate Rocky Planets - Review Article","","Water and land surface coverage on temperate rocky planets interact with atmospheric gases and stellar radiation, shaping planetary environments relevant to prebiotic chemistry and the emergence of complex life. This review analyzes physical controls on the land–sea ratio, how that ratio governs climatic and biological processes, and how future astronomical observations of exoplanets might constrain it. It also summarizes delivery routes, deep-mantle sequestration limits, and the cycling of water via outgassing and ingassing tied to tectonics, while deriving observable water/land ratios from contrasting reflectance in spatially resolved maps.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/water-versus-land-on-temperate-rocky-planets-review-article/135653/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/water-versus-land-on-temperate-rocky-planets-review-article/135653.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Quinn Holloway","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-17","2026-08-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",11,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What determines the water/land ratio on a rocky planet?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"The land–sea ratio is controlled by physical conditions that set how much surface area is available as ocean versus land, and it evolves through water delivery, deep sequestration, and surface sculpting processes that change ocean basin volume and continental topography.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does the water/land ratio influence climate and biology?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Variations in ocean coverage affect climatic regimes and, consequently, the environments where biological evolution could proceed, with some surface conditions being more favorable to prebiotic chemistry and more complex life.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"How can future observations constrain water versus land on exoplanets?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"Because water and land have contrasting reflectance properties, spatially resolved 2D maps based on Earth-analog observations can be used to infer water/land ratios from high-contrast imaging by large-aperture telescopes.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},135653,1787316707,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":140,"language":141,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":142,"faqs":143,"seo_title":144,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":130,"read_time":145},2336474466712,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Water Versus Land on Temperate Rocky Planets  \nClaire Marie Guimond1 · Tilman Spohn2 · Svetlana Berdyugina3 ·  \nPaul K. Byrne4 · Nicolas Coltice5 · Donald M. Glaser6,7 · Manasvi Lingam8 · Charles H. Lineweaver9 · Peter A. Cawood10  \nReceived: 5 June 2025 / Accepted: 18 December 2025 / Published online: 8 January 2026 © The Author(s) 2026  \nAbstract  \nWater and land surfaces on a planet interact in particular ways with gases in the atmosphere and with radiation from the star. These interactions define the environments that prevail on the planet, some of which may be more amenable to prebiotic chemistry, some to the evolution of more complex life. This review article covers (i) the physical conditions that determine the ratio of land to sea on a rocky planet,(ii) how this ratio would affect climatic and biologic processes, and (iii) whether future astronomical observations might constrainthis ratio on exoplanets. Water can be delivered in multiple ways to a growing rocky planet—and although we may not agree on the contribution of different mechanism(s) to Earth’s bulk water, hydrated building blocks and nebular ingassing could at least in principle supply several oceans’ worth. The water that planets can sequester over eons in their solid deep mantles is limited by the water concentration at water saturation of nominally anhydrous mantle minerals, being in sum likely less than 2000 ppm of the planet mass. Water is cycled between mantle and surface through outgassing and ingassing mechanisms that, while tightly linked to tectonics, do not necessarily require plate tectonics in every case. The actual water/land ratio at a given time then emerges from the balance between the volume of surface water on the one hand, and on the other hand, the shape of the planet (its ocean basin volume) that is carved out by dynamic topography, the petrologic evolution of continents, impact cratering, and other surface-sculpting processes. By leveraging the contrast in reflectance properties of water and land surfaces, spatially resolved 2D maps of Earth-asan-exoplanet have been retrieved from models using real Earth observations, demonstrating that water/land ratios of rocky exoplanets may be determined from data delivered by largeaperture, high-contrast imaging telescopes in the future.  \n1 Introduction  \nThe world map of Earth is two thirds oceanic-blue and one third continental-brown (Fig. 1) . For most of us, this map is our mental image, for better or worse, of a habitable planet. Yet studying Earth history has not clearly answered whether this condition of contemporaneous water and land has been a prerequisite for our planet’s long-term state of hosting life. The existence of billions of distant exoplanets in our Galaxy could, in principle, serve as a means to overcome this anthropic bias, although observing even a few of them in the necessary detail is one of the field’s multigenerational challenges. In the meantime, the possible existence  \nExtended author information available on the last page of the article  \nFig. 1 Composite image of the Earth’s surface compiled from NASA’s Terra satellite MODIS images, with clouds removed. Credit: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation) . Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group; MODIS Ocean Group, Public Domain, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50497070](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=50497070)  \nof so many rocky planets with different geological histories and bulk properties than Earth has motivated theoretical research into why—and to what extent—some planets might sustain oceans next to land, and how this ocean coverage would affect climates, biospheres, and their detectable signatures.  \nWorking to understanding the drivers and consequences of planet surface character isin line ","cbCaiuQlpf35OJv9","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuQlpf35OJv9","pdf",4087419,49,"English","# Abstract\n## Key drivers of the water/land ratio\n## Climate and biological implications\n## Water delivery, sequestration, and cycling\n## Observational prospects from exoplanet imaging","[{\"question\":\"What determines the water/land ratio on a rocky planet?\",\"answer\":\"The land–sea ratio is controlled by physical conditions that set how much surface area is available as ocean versus land, and it evolves through water delivery, deep sequestration, and surface sculpting processes that change ocean basin volume and continental topography.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the water/land ratio influence climate and biology?\",\"answer\":\"Variations in ocean coverage affect climatic regimes and, consequently, the environments where biological evolution could proceed, with some surface conditions being more favorable to prebiotic chemistry and more complex life.\"},{\"question\":\"How can future observations constrain water versus land on exoplanets?\",\"answer\":\"Because water and land have contrasting reflectance properties, spatially resolved 2D maps based on Earth-analog observations can be used to infer water/land ratios from high-contrast imaging by large-aperture telescopes.\"}]","Water Versus Land on Temperate Rocky Planets - Review Article | PDF",123]