How were the oceans formed?

         About three-fourth of the Earth’s total surface is covered with water. Only one-fourth of Earth’s surface is land. The total area of the Earth’s surface covered by oceans comes to 361.100 million sq. km. Do you know how and when these oceans were formed?

          It is not yet fully known when oceans were formed. However, at the beginning of the formation of Earth, there were no oceans. The age of oceans has been calculated on the basis of the minerals present inside them. It is estimated that oceans were formed some time between 500 to 1,000 millions years before.

            The story of the origin of oceans is very interesting. The Earth was a giant burning fire ball at the time of its birth. Its surface was formed by molten rocks. When the Earth started cooling slowly, it was enveloped by clouds of gases. These clouds became very heavy after cooling. They started raining heavily, but the Earth’s surface was still so hot that the raindrops falling on it would evaporate and mix with the atmosphere again. This would again come down to the Earth in the form of rains. This cycle continued for millions of years. The Earth’s crust became cold and tough and the rain-water would boil no more, but the heavy down-pour continued for thousands of years. The low-lying areas of the Earth were filled up with the water of these heavy rains. These vast lakes of water on the surface of the Earth are today’s oceans.