RADARUTARA.ID– In 2016, several researchers from an ancient mine in Canada discovered a pool of water 2 billion years old and which was the oldest in the world. The pool is approximately 3 kilometers deep and is believed to be two billion years old.
This discovery also revises the oldest known data on water dating back 500 million years. The previous record was held by water found in the same mining area by the team at a depth of about 2.5 kilometers.
According to IFL Science, the mine is actually the deepest basalt mine in the world, as 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 water they found by studying the gases trapped there.
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Gases such as helium and xenon can be trapped in water trapped in rock crevices, and measuring them can indicate the age of the water.
“When people think of this water, they assume it is a small amount of water trapped in rock,” said Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, presenting the discovery.
“But in reality these things are flowing at a rate of liters per minute, the volume of water is much greater than expected,” he added.
Moreover, the age of the vast waters is not the only important discovery. When researchers analyzed the fluid, they found traces of life.
Although they didn’t find actual living bacteria, what they did find was actually the fingerprint of life. From this, they were able to conclude that a certain form of microbiology lived in the water and had done so for a very long time.
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The fact that anything can survive, and even thrive, in water so ancient and deep within the Earth has several important implications.
Not only can this tell us about life on Earth billions of years ago, but it can also help search for life outside Earth, for example on Mars.
Even though rivers no longer flow on the surface of Mars, there are still pockets of water and ice beneath the surface. This depth is nowhere near as deep as Canadian water, and it is possible that these pockets provide the conditions necessary for microorganisms to live.*
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