At http://phys.org/print338021988.html … hydrogen rich waters have been discovered deep underground in different locations around the world – including Canada, South Africa and Scandinavia. This water has a chemistry similar to that found near deep sea vents. Hence, underground water may actually be feeding the oceans. The paper is in the Dec. 18th issue of Nature and the data is derived from 19 deep mines.
At http://phys.org/print338031193.html … new research suggests that new oceanic crust being formed at Mid Ocean ridges is also supplying water to the oceans – from deep underground. This is a major geological turn around as it now poses the big question – water doesn't necessarily arrive via icy comets. Is another consensus theory about to be shot down in flames?
The researchers, from Ohio State University, take the course of least resistance and say water is derived from both the innards of the Earth and from space, via icy comets. In other words, rather than have their work rejected they have perpetuated the consensus theory but have hung alongside it the possibility water may have an origin in geology. Central to the new idea is that rocks, apparently dry objects, and this would presumably go for rocky comets too, contains water – in the form of hydrogen atoms trapped inside natural voids, even inside crystalline structures. Minerals contain lots of oxygen – so hydrogen and oxygen are capable of producing water by mixing. We may note it is estimated there is as much water under the ground as there currently is in all the ocean basins.