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Water has always been present on our earth, although its origin is mysterious, according to HNGN.

With the help of instruments such as advanced ion-microprobe instrumentation, a team of scientists investigated rocks from Baffin Island in Canada. Scientists compared the ratio of hydrogen to deuterium in the water inside the old rocks, to what they see in other planets, reports the University of Hawaii at Manoa 

"The Baffin Island rocks were collected back in 1985, and scientists have had a lot of time to analyze them in the intervening years. As a result of their efforts, we know that they contain a component from Earth's deep mantle," said cosmochemist Lydia Hallis.

When rock samples of electron microscope images of Baffin Island are examined, they found large olivine mineral grains in them. They had trapped pockets of glass, known as melt inclusions.

The rocks, shifting nearer to the earth, did not encounter sedimentary input from crystal rocks, which left them untouched. Hence, the rocks could contain ancient samples of water and give an insight into the history of earth.

"We found that the water had very little deuterium, which strongly suggests that it was not carried to Earth after it had formed and cooled. Instead, water molecules were likely carried on the dust that existed in a disk around our Sun before the planets formed. Over time this water-rich dust was slowly drawn together to form our planet," Hallis said.

"Even though a good deal of water would have been lost at the surface through evaporation in the heat of the formation process, enough survived to form the world's water."

The study was published in the latest edition of Science.