Baxter says:
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Meanwhile there is evidence that the mantle, the deep rock layers of Earth’s structure, may indeed contain lodes of water that would dwarf the existing oceans (see A.B. Thompson, ‘Water in the Earth’s Upper Mantle’, Nature (vol. 358, pp 295-302, 1992). Recently two American scientists have claimed from the evidence of seismic waves to have discovered an ocean locked in the porous rocks deep beneath Beijing (New Scientist, 10 March 2007), while scientists from Tokyo have observed the dragging-down of water at subduction zones (Science, 8 June 2007).
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I really don't think, though, that there's a necessity for such things to be conclusively proven in order for them to form the basis for an SF novel. SF has always asked "What if...?"