Breakthrough Discovery: Scientists Sample Earth’s Mantle for First Time to Uncover Origins of Life

Jakarta –

If you want to understand geology planet our origins and perhaps the origins of life, studying the Earth’s mantle is a good place to start. Separating the rocky crust of the planet from the outer core, the mantle makes up 70% of the Earth’s mass and 84% of its volume.

However, despite its great influence on the planet’s geological processes, scientists have never directly sampled rocks from this very important geological sequence. In fact, the level of complexity is very high.

The Earth’s crust is on average 14 to 19 kilometers thick. Fortunately there is an anomaly in a place where the crust is very thin. One such area is the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, particularly near the seamount known as the Atlantis Massif.

Named detikINET from Popular Mechanic, Monday (19/8/2024) the southern part of this area is known as the Lost City, an aquifer rich in alkaline, hydrogen, methane and other carbon. This makes the area an important candidate for researching how early life on Earth formed based on science.

So in May 2023, scientists at the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) using the research vessel JOIDES Resolution, dug the area to a depth of 1,268 kilometers. They reach into the rock like a time capsule of ancient geology.

“At first we only planned to drill to 200 meters because that was the deepest excavation ever made in the Earth’s mantle rock,” said Johan Lissenberg, an expert at Cardiff University. out to be easy and finally reached more than 1 kilometer.

Analysis of the rock is still ongoing, but so far it has proven to be the ancient geological time capsule that researchers need.

“The rocks that existed on the early Earth are more similar to those we found during this trip. Studying them will give us a critical view of the possible early chemical and physical environments in Earth’s history,” said Susan Q Lang, associate scientist. at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutions.

(fay/fay)