I'm pretty excited about a recent discovery of large amounts of water deep in the Earth, in a mineral called ringwoodite,[1] because it confirms something the Bible says. This water is trapped within the mantle, some 410 miles down. If this water exists all around the globe in the mantle, then there could easily be about three times as much water trapped down there than all the oceans contain! This is a huge reserve of water. It has implications about the early Earth that help bolster the Bible's statement about how the oceans formed.
Job 38:6-11 says: “To what were [the earth's] foundations fastened? ... Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’” (NKJV). This passage, clearly referring to the early Earth and its formation, seems to indicate that the seas or oceans formed primarily from water apparently coming out from the inside of the earth. That has been my interpretation of this passage for years, now. As I wrote in my book entitled Genesis One Commentary:
Job 38:6-11 says: “To what were [the earth's] foundations fastened? ... Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb; When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band; When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors; When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’” (NKJV). This passage, clearly referring to the early Earth and its formation, seems to indicate that the seas or oceans formed primarily from water apparently coming out from the inside of the earth. That has been my interpretation of this passage for years, now. As I wrote in my book entitled Genesis One Commentary:
Consulting with Job 38:8-9, I believe we see that the primitive earth had a thick, dark “cloud” surrounding it that prevented sunlight from reaching the earth’s surface. . . . Before that, apparently the global ocean or sea was created partially from water within the magma oceans that bubbled up and filled the atmosphere (Job 38:8).
It is possible that the primitive earth was hot and the water came up and created a watery, steamy, thick atmosphere that blocked out the sunlight. As the earth cooled, part of the water condensed and formed the global ocean, while the other half remained in the atmosphere and continued to make for darkness. This primitive state of the earth was roughly 4.3 Ba by modern dating methods. The giant global ocean was relatively shallow compared with today, and the atmosphere was thick and dark with moisture and likely pollution such as methane and carbon dioxide.
It is possible that the primitive earth was hot and the water came up and created a watery, steamy, thick atmosphere that blocked out the sunlight. As the earth cooled, part of the water condensed and formed the global ocean, while the other half remained in the atmosphere and continued to make for darkness. This primitive state of the earth was roughly 4.3 Ba by modern dating methods. The giant global ocean was relatively shallow compared with today, and the atmosphere was thick and dark with moisture and likely pollution such as methane and carbon dioxide.
It has been assumed that most of the ocean waters came from comets that struck the early Earth—even though one study had shown previously that there was likely plenty of water within the earth’s early magma oceans to form a significant global ocean. Now, however, with the finding of vast amounts of water in this ringwoodite mineral deep in the earth, there is good reason to believe that the early Earth really did have plenty of water to form much of the oceans. As one report has said:
The water in the mantle rock, which could equal the amount of water in the world's oceans, may be an integral part of sustaining water on the surface, Smyth said. It also implies that the Earth's oceans likely formed from water stored deep beneath the Earth, rather than from a comet or asteroid, as other scientists have theorized, Smyth said.[2]
Thus, even though this is very preliminary, it seems likely that the above interpretation of Job 38:6-11 is valid and another good example of the amazing scientific accuracy of the Bible.
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