In the beginning, Earth was ablaze, shaken by violent convulsions. Molten matter endured terrifying bombardments from the solar system. This battlefield gave rise to an atmosphere—boiling, red with nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and water vapor, likely carried by ice from comets traveling through the galaxy. The Earth’s surface was like a massive bubble under pressure, heated to over 700 degrees.
Then, the inferno cooled. Vapors condensed, unleashing the greatest flood the planet has ever known.
That was 4 billion years ago. Water covered nearly the entire crust of the Earth. It washed over the primordial rock, eroding it and filling itself with salt. The Earth became a world of saltwater.
We call this water the Ocean. An ocean planet had been born.

Excerpt from the film Planet Ocean
by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and Michael Pitiot
© 2012 Hope Production - Tara

The Birth of the Ocean

How did water come to Earth?
In the very beginning, Earth was a ball of fire—burning, shaking with explosions, struck by meteorites from the sky. Then, little by little, the heat calmed. Steam filled the air. And one day, the Earth cooled. Then came the rain—an endless downpour that lasted thousands of years. Water rushed over the rocks, smoothing them, gathering salt along the way.
And that’s how the ocean was born. That’s how Earth became the blue planet.

© Couleurs Grands Lacs – Text | © Armand Amar – Music