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Early Ocean Arrival

Earth is sometimes known as the Blue Planet for the fact that the global ocean covers more than 70 percent of its surface. Until recently, however, scientists didn’t know when the the ocean formed. Some have hypothesized that water came to Earth well after formation of the planet, but a new study from WHOI geologists pushes back the arrival of water on Earth and in the inner solar system. “Our ocean was always here—it didn’t come from a late process, as was previously thought,” said Adam Sarafian, lead author and a MIT-WHOI Joint Program student, shown here with co-author Horst Marschall (right) analyzing meteorite samples in the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility.(Photo by Jayne Doucette, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)