The origin of water on Earth, or the reason that there is clearly more liquid water on Earth than on the other rocky planets of the Solar System, is not completely understood. There exist numerous more or less mutually compatible hypotheses as to how water may have accumulated on Earth's surface over the past 4.5 billion years in sufficient quantity to form oceans.
Internal sources
Gradual "dehydration melting"—leakage of water stored in hydrate minerals of Earth's rocks—could have formed a portion of its water. Water may also have come from volcanism: water vapor in the atmosphere that originated in volcanic eruptions may have condensed to form rain, slowly filling Earth's oceanic basins.