WASHINGTON – For the first time, scientists have corroborated with direct evidence that the Earth has oceans of water deep within mantle by actually recovering some trapped inside diamonds.

While at least three recent studies have found evidence to support the theory, what few scientists are noting is that the discovery of actual droplets of the water hundreds of miles deep below the Earth’s surface corroborates what the Bible said in the Genesis Flood account, say Christians who have been following the latest research.

The latest study by University of Nevada Las Vegas geo-scientist Oliver Tschauner and his colleagues who found traces of water trapped within diamonds pushed up to the surface by intense pressure.

The discovery is being hailed by other scientists as groundbreaking and surprising.

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The study, "Ice-VII inclusions in Diamonds: Evidence for Aqueous Fluid in Earth's Deep Mantle," was published Thursday in the journal Science.

While in the jewelry business, diamond with any impurities hold less value, for Tschauner and other scientists, this flaw may hold the key to understanding the inner workings of our planet.

Tschauner studied diamonds found in China, the Republic of South Africa and Botswana that surged up from inside Earth.

"This shows that this is a global phenomenon," the professor said.

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Scientists theorize the diamonds used in the study were born in the mantle under temperatures reaching more than 1,000-degrees Fahrenheit. The mantle – which makes up more than 80 percent of the Earth's volume – is made of silicate minerals containing iron, aluminum, and calcium among others. Until relatively recently, scientists were skeptical that water could be found there.

"These discoveries are important in understanding that water-rich regions in the Earth's interior can play a role in the global water budget and the movement of heat-generating radioactive elements," Tschauner said.

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This discovery can help scientists create new, more accurate models of what's going on inside the Earth, specifically how and where heat is generated under the Earth's crust. In other words: "It's another piece of the puzzle in understanding how our planet works," Tschauner said.

Interestingly, Tschauner and his colleagues weren't looking for water. Like most scientists and climatologists today, they were looking for carbon dioxide – thought to be the culprit behind the theory of global climate change. They didn't find any.

"We're still looking for it, actually," said Tschauner.

The presence of water in diamonds suggests there is water-rich fluid in the transition zone between the upper and lower mantle, and even into the top of the lower mantle.

"This is really the first time that we see water at such depths," says Oded Navon, a mantle petrologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who was not involved in the new study.

Other recent studies, beginning in 2014, based on wobbles in the Earth's rotation and other phenomena, have postulated the amount of water inside the mantle could be as large or larger than all the water found in the oceans on the surface of the planet. Studies have indicated the fluid may influence all sorts of geological processes, including the grinding of tectonic plates, the formation of volcanoes and the movement of Earth's elements.

Last June, for instance, researchers examining the rumbling of seismic waves and performing lab experiments that mimicked the crushing pressures and extreme temperatures of Earth's mantle, made the argument that a huge amount of water resides within the planet. Those findings, conducted by Yale University geophysicist Jennifer Girard, who was not involved with this study, appeared in the June 13 issue of Science.

In January 2017, another study, conducted by Zdenek Futera of the University College Dublin in Ireland and published in Earth and Planetary Letters postulated the mantle was filled with fresh water exceeding the amount of saline fluid found in all the Earth's oceans. That study suggested the novel idea that the Earth was actually manufacturing water.

There was another similar study in 2014 led by Graham Pearson, a geochemist at the University of Alberta in Canada. He now believes there is more water inside the planet than on the surface.

These theories, now backed up by the first physical evidence, hold some world-shaking ramifications:

That far from Earth having a limited amount of fresh water for its teeming population, there may be an unlimited amount deep in the mantle;

That scientists can divert some attention from the urgent race to discover of water on other planets;

That scientists might want to reconsider their skepticism of the biblical Great Flood account in Genesis 7:11, which said the waters broke through the surface of the Earth when "all the fountains of the great deep [were] broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." Most scientists discount the notion that the Earth was ever flooded, despite the fact that 71 percent of the surface is covered by water today.

That the Earth's water came from extraterrestrial sources – namely comets and asteroids, a common theory until this burst of new evidence of abundant water inside the planet.

"It is ironic that secularist scientists are still seeking to explain where the Earth's water came from," Andrew Snelling, Ph.D geologist from Australia and director of research for Answers in Genesis, told WND. "For many years now, they have endeavored to fill in the difficult-to-explain pieces of their 'story' about how our home Earth 'just happened' to become so habitable for life over the course of its supposed billions-of-years history. Secularists believe the Earth condensed from clumpy matter flung out of the solar nebula 4.56 or so billion years ago. It was thus originally a hot, molten blob that cooled. They used to suggest that most of the water came from inside this cooling Earth, but not enough to fill the oceans we have on the Earth's surface today. A once popular theory was that comets (which are essentially large, dirty snowballs) collided with the Earth and deposited their water on its surface."

But that explanation could not possibly explain oceans of water deep beneath the surface of the planet. With the new evidence for just that, a new explanation was needed.

"Of course, these same secularists and Bible skeptics say, as predicted in 2 Peter 3:3-6, that there never was a global flood on the Earth, even though it is still 70 percent covered in water, which averages more than two miles deep," writes Snelling. "But ironically, they also say that, due to the many evidences of massive water erosion on Mars, there was a watery flood 'of Biblical proportions' on that planet in the past, even though that planet's surface is dry today!"

Snelling, too, sees the recent studies as evidence of the biblical Flood account.

"The Bible's description of that outbursting event is merely confirmed by the latest findings of the secular scientists," he writes. "So, the waters that came from inside the Earth, combined with the waters in the original, created oceans to produce the Genesis Flood."

Pastor Mark Biltz, the man who discovered the "Blood Moons" phenomenon and the author of the new book "God's Day Timer," called the earlier reports of the massive water supplies within the Earth "fantastic news."

"Over and over again science is finally catching up to the Bible," Biltz said. "The Bible says in the Book of Daniel that in the last days knowledge will be increased. Well, it seems the scientific community is waking up more and more to the truths of the Bible."

He added: "The Bible is much like the ocean itself in that its depths are unsearchable and vastly unknown to man. In time, God has been revealing its hidden treasures for science to find. Long before, when scientists thought the world was flat or a cube held up elephants or turtles, the Bible declared in Job 26 that the Earth was just suspended in space and in Isaiah 40 that it was a sphere."

Joseph Farah, founder of WND and author of "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age," wrote about science's evolving theories about water inside the Earth in that book and is revising and expanding his own observations for a future updated and expanded edition.

"Since massive amounts of water from inside the Earth were used by God to destroy the planet, and future biblical prophecies suggest 'living waters' from inside the Earth will restore the planet to its Garden of Eden-like beginning, what we are seeing in these new discoveries makes perfect sense," he says. "In fact, I believe the 'living waters' we read about in the Bible are already present deep beneath the surface of the planet."

Both Old Testament and New speak about something called "living waters."

In Zechariah 14:8, a prophetic book it says: "And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be." Farah says there is more detail on the flow of these living waters provided in Ezekiel 47 as waters rush out from under the threshold of the Temple in Jerusalem toward the east. This will not be trickle of water like we see today in the Jordan River. It will be river that cannot be passed over. It will run eastward and go down into the Judean desert and into the Dead Sea. "And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh" (Ezekiel 47:9).

"While we know these 'living waters' are of God and could be produced entirely supernaturally, we also know that God uses what He has created in the natural world for His own purposes. Could it be these waters are just waiting to break forth on His timing?" Farah posits.

A Christian thought leader who has long used the "living waters" metaphor is author, filmmaker and apologist Ray Comfort. Comfort, founder of the Living Waters ministry, welcomed the news of water within the Earth as further support for his Christian position.

"It's beneath the intellectual dignity of most people nowadays to believe in the biblical account of anything," he told WND. "This is because God, in His great wisdom, chose foolish things to confound the wise. The Bible is filled with stories that are an insult to anyone who is proud of heart, and God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. The door of salvation is deliberately set low."

He adds: "However, there is a massive amount of evidence to prove a worldwide flood. The main one being that 70 percent of the Earth is covered in water. That's the kind of ultimate 'duh.' Or, for want of a better analogy, they can't (or won't) see the forest for the trees."

"In Ezekiel 47:8-12 it talks about how the waters shall bring healing to the whole area," he says. "Very soon the future will be upon us and mankind will stand in awe as the Creator of the Universe reveals Himself as the Grand Scientist!"

Another Christian minister who said he was not surprised by how science is catching up to the Bible is Bill Cloud of Shoreshim Ministries, the author of "Esau Rising."

"Obviously, as a believer, discoveries such as these don't surprise me," he told WND. "Not only does it confirm my faith in the Bible is well placed but it also reveals that God uses those who tend to doubt His existence to prove that He does exist! I believe this is connected to a principle found in Proverbs 25:2: 'It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; it is the honor of kings to search out the matter.' In other words, sometimes God plays 'hide and seek' and those who investigating His creation are 'it.' If they keep searching, they are going to be continually stunned by what they find."

He added: "In this case, that vast supplies of water are concealed beneath the earth's mantle should come as no surprise to those who believe what the Bible has to say. Water covered the entire earth before God caused dry land to appear – that water had to go somewhere. The great flood was not brought about solely by rain falling from heaven but also because the 'fountains of the great deep were broken up.' When those waters abated, it is likely they returned to where they originated – deep within the Earth."