Scientists have discovered two billion-year-old water in Canadian mine.
Researchers found the oldest water ever discovered, that dates two billion years. The discovery will offer in our understanding of how life emerged.
Above, two billion-year-old water found in an Ontario mine. Credit University of Toronto
The water was discovered in a mine in Canada back in 2013 and was about 1.5 billion years old. Now University of Toronto scientists, have found at the same site a deeper source at least 500 million years older.
Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who led the team that made the discovery, told BBC News:
“When people think about this water they assume it must be some tiny amount of water trapped within the rock.
But in fact it’s very much bubbling right up out at you. These things are flowing at rates of liters per minute – the volume of the water is much larger than anyone anticipated.
It won’t kill you if you drank it, but it would taste absolutely disgusting.
By looking at the sulphate in the water, we were able to see a fingerprint that’s indicative of the presence of life.”
via cbc, nationalpost
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