Using Kīlauea to Quantitatively Prove CCC Produced Earth's Oceans -And Likely Most Water in the Solar System

Companion paper to: Jenkins, S. (2026) "The Cosmic Combustion Cycle: Metal Oxide Catalytic Chemistry as a Universal Process from Stellar Nurseries to Habitable Worlds." Authorea Preprints. DOI: 10.22541/au.177101834.42641531/v1 Kīlauea volcano provides a modern, measurable analog for the catalytic combustion chemistry (CCC) that produced Earth's hydrosphere (Jenkins 2026). By anchoring calculations to Kīlauea's observed water output — 8,000 tonnes/day from a 25 km² lava field, 3,200 km from the nearest subduction zone — and scaling to a planet-wide magma ocean with unlimited methane fuel, we show that CCC produces Earth's ocean in 2,300–92,000 years depending on assumptions. This is 50–2,000× faster than the magma ocean's 2–10 Myr lifespan, meaning the system is overproductive — raising the real question: why isn't Earth a water world? We resolve this by identifying four sinks: mantle storage (1–12 ocean masses capacity), hydrogen escape (at least 1 ocean mass lost), subduction recycling (4:1 net sink ratio), and the finite carbon budget as the ultimate limiter. We further show that volcanism was 3–10× more intense in the first 2 billion years (Hadean–Archean), with radiogenic heat at ~95 TW vs. 20 TW today, komatiite lavas erupting at 1,600°C vs. modern basalts at 1,200°C, and mantle potential temperatures 150–250°C hotter than present. This enhanced early volcanism amplifies every CCC calculation. The same chemistry scales to any rocky body with accreted carbon and metal oxide surfaces, implying CCC is the dominant water production mechanism in the solar system and beyond