Weather of Arabia - Geologists have discovered a source of groundwater that has lived for more than two billion years, and carries traces of life. What distinguishes this discovery is that it is linked to a previous discovery made by geologists in Canada in 2016.
This deep water source was discovered at a depth of approximately three kilometers, and was between 1.5 billion and 2.64 billion years old, making it the oldest thing ever discovered on Earth, considering that it was very confined and isolated. According to the tests conducted, this source was characterized by a large amount Of the water that was flowing continuously to the surface at a rate of up to one liter per minute, which is an unexpected rate for groundwater in sources this old, this discovery sheds light on a new concept of the volume and speed of groundwater flow in ancient sources.
The researchers also found evidence of chemical traces in the water , dating back to previous microorganisms that colonized these waters at an earlier time. According to what was reported by Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, the researchers were able to discover evidence indicating the existence of previous life by analyzing the sulfates present in the water. The researchers said that such discoveries could provide additional evidence that there are other places in the solar system that may be able to host life.
When Barbara Sherwood sent water samples to her colleague at Oxford University for testing, she was astonished to discover that the water was not ordinary at all. Sherwood Lollar, a geochemist, spent many years exploring the world's deepest mines, where she extracted historic water dating back millions of years, and she waited. She was impatient for the test results, and when they did not come as quickly as expected, she called the British researcher supervising the test and asked him:
“What's going on with those samples?” he responded that their mass spectrometer had malfunctioned.
The importance of these samples relates to the fact that they linked the average age of the water extracted from the North Timmins mine in Ontario in 2009 to an age of 1.6 billion years . This is the oldest documented age of water on the surface of the Earth. This discovery raises important questions about the possibility of the existence of life on the surface of the Earth or even On other planets.
But the challenge of analyzing this water comes from determining its deep location underground, and its high salinity many times higher than seawater. For this purpose, Sherwood Lollar undertook an underground expedition that lasted for years, until her team was finally able to extract the ancient brine that set a record of more than a billion. year.
Tests on this water included measuring noble radioactive gases such as helium and xenon, which are located at the top right of the table of chemical elements, as the formation of water gradually collects these elements over the ages, and this serves as a testimony to their development over time, and this process was similar to the chemistry that occurs In the hot marine depths where microbial life thrives.
It should be noted that the Kidd Creek mine from which this water was extracted is still active in the production of copper and zinc, and is believed to be the deepest base metal mine in the world, with a depth of 3,012 metres, and continues to expand.
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