Where did the water come from on earth?

Question

Since the earth began as huge molten rock billions of years ago, and the temperature was awfully high. Where exactly did water come from, and how did it form? Wouldnt have the immense heat evaporated it?

I already asked in another section, and they had problems

Answer 1

volcanoes mainly


edit sorry that was rather vague, realize you didnt get much from asking in the sci section

ok...we know very little of Earth's early history but most scientists are in agreement that the dominant contribution of water came from volcanic activity, with water being the dominant gas emitted from a typical volcano

Heat loss back then was about five times higher and thus, stimulating greater amounts of volcanic activity, expelling more and more volcanic gases into the astmosphere

Of course this isnt the only source, there was also considerable contributions from the melting of icy comets.

Ok, early in the history of the Earth, the solar constant was roughly 70% of its present value, this means that the Earth could actually have been covered in ice...however, we know from geological evidence that this isnt the case...so obviously all of those aersols being emitted by volcanoes and by other bodies from space prevented this from happening (greenhouse gases)


sorry, I know its not the best of answers, but I'm quite tired, hope it helped you somewhat anyway :)

Answer 2

The bulk of earths water was there from the beginning but for a long time it was all steam. The earths atmosphere was also about 70 times as dense as it is now. Eventually the earths surface cooled down enough for water to begin condensing and rain down. Alot of water would also have come to earth via comet impacts. So it is not so strange that earth has so much water since the molecule itself is quite common. The real question is: since earth, venus and mars all formed in the same way, howcome those planets have almost no water? It is plausble that mars and venus did have lots of water. Surface features on mars supports this as does the abundance of heavy hydrogen isotopes in venus atmosphere. But both planets have lost their water due to interaction with the suns ultraviolet rays that split water into hydrogen and oxygen. And when the hydrogen is free it can reach escapeenergy and vent off into space.

Answer 3

I'm a young earth creationist, but in the interest of defending what we know about evaporation and other bits of scientific know-how - when water evaporates, it doesn't disappear, it just changes into a gaseous state to eventually rain down on the earth again.

We've got pretty much the same amount of water we started with, if current models for evaporation are to be believed.

As for how water came here, it might be argued that they came from comets, those icy devils.

Answer 4

The mighty Odin slaughtered the great cow and after drowning all but two of the giants he used the flesh of the cow to make 7 additional worlds by using the cow as dirt. I assume the water was either the cows blood or milk.

Answer 5

I don't recall where I heard it, but some say there was a canopy or circle of water in space surrounding the earth for centuries prior to the flood.
Also recently yahoo news talked about Mars once having oceans. it might be possible that God used water from Mars to form the basics for the flood and there it is.............
We do know that he used natural things to make his miracles.

Answer 6

Oxygen mixed with hydrogen after the steam from the lava-infested crust of the Earth's surface began to cool down.

Answer 7

Not necessarily created as a huge molten rock.

Spinning gaseous accretion.

Mostly hollow.

Dense canopy collapse.

dave

Answer 8

hydrogen plus oxygen. hydrogen is basic building block of the universe, oxygen is present in many rocks as part of chemical compounds.

water was indeed evaporated until earth cooled down enough.

Answer 9

The book of Genesis (beginnings) says that God created everything, He made it rain, and had springs of water flow from the earth....

Answer 10

Yes, that's where rain comes from. The water evapourates, forms clouds and then rains back down.