When water appeared on the Earth?

The first folds in the crust of the Earth took place in complete darkness, when the world still felt very hot. The Earth had cooled sufficiently to harden the rocks but its temperature was still far higher than that of boiling water.

No water was to be found on the surface and all the water vapour coming from the burning cracks in the ground collected in enormous masses of clouds, tens of kilometers thick, which completely darkened the sky.

Even if any vapour was occasionally changed into rain by the strong condensation, the failing drops vaporized again as soon as they touched the burning hot surface of the Earth. So the sky of our planet was permanently clouded by masses of swirling vapour.

There came a time, however, when the rocks had cooled down sufficiently so that the water no longer boiled as it touched them. This is when the rain began to fall. For thousands and thousands of years the large masses of clouds had held back the water which had gushed out of the depths of the Earth. Now they poured it back on its mountains and plains.

It rained and it rained, without stopping, for centuries. It was the greatest flood of all time.