Sandra Johnson, age 9, of Shreveport, Louisiana, for her question:

How were the oceans made?

The experts who study the earth asked this same question long ago. They knew that the oceans have been here for ages and ages. But it was very hard to figure out where all that water came from. Now they have some of the answers. Perhaps they will be able to explain how it all happened in detail. Most experts agree that the newborn earth was very hot and dry, with no water at all. This was billions of years ago. But things did not stay that way very long.

There were clouds, thick heavy rain clouds above the earth. And at last the rain came pouring down in torrents. It drenched and deluged the dry land and flooded down the slopes. When the long rainy spell ended, there was enough water on the ground to fill the ocean. There was one huge chunk of dry land, higher than the water. Later, the earth gently cracked it. Then the nieces of dry land slowly drifted apart through the ocean    and became the separate continents.