Jakarta –
In 2016, researchers at a mine in Canada discovered the oldest water pool in the world. The pool of water at a depth of approximately 3 kilometers is believed to be two billion years old.
This discovery “revises” the oldest known water data by at least 500 million years. The previous record was held by water discovered in the same mine by the same team in 2013, and came from a depth of about 2.5 kilometers.
Quoted from IFL Science, Sunday (7/1/2024) this mine is actually the deepest basalt metal mine in the world, because the search for copper, zinc and silver takes miners deeper into the Earth’s crust.
As miners dug deeper, researchers took the opportunity to explore deeper into the mine. They analyzed the found water by studying the gases trapped in it.
Gases such as helium and xenon can be trapped in water stuck in rock crevices, and measuring them can tell how old the water is.
“When people think about this water, they assume it must be a small amount of water trapped in the rock,” said Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who presented the discovery.
“But in reality, these things are flowing at liters per minute, the volume of water is much greater than anyone thought,” he continued.
What’s more, the age of the vast body of water is not the only important discovery. When researchers analyzed the fluid, they found traces of life in it.
While they haven’t found actual living bacteria, what they found is actually the fingerprint of life. From this, they were able to conclude that there had been some form of microbiology living in the water and for a very long period of time.
The fact that something could survive, and indeed thrive, in water so old and so deep within the Earth has several important implications.
Not only can it tell us about life on Earth billions of years ago, but it can also help find life outside of Earth, for example on Mars.
While rivers no longer flow on the surface of Mars, there are still pockets of water and ice beneath the surface. This is nowhere near as deep as the water found in Canada, and it is possible that these pockets could provide the necessary conditions for microorganisms to live.
Watch the video “NASA’s MRO Reveals the Latest Information on Finding Water on Mars”
(rns/agt)
2024-01-06 22:45:04
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