2 Billion Year Old Water Found Under a Mine in Canada

Researchers in Canada discovered the oldest body of water ever in 2016 while digging deep beneath a mine. The water is thought to be 2 billion years old and is located 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) below the surface.

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Researchers in Canada discovered the oldest body of water ever in 2016 while digging deep beneath a mine. The water is thought to be 2 billion years old and is located 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) below the surface.

Jesse Tarnas from NASA visited Kidd Creek to find out what the deep fluids there can teach us about life on Mars (Photo credit: University of Toronto/Stable Isotope Lab).

2016 saw the discovery of the oldest body of water ever by Canadian researchers working deep beneath a mine. The water is 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) below the surface and is considered to be 2 billion years old.

In Ontario, water that was viscous, salty, and had a yellow tint was retrieved from rocks. Canva

As the miners descended deeper, the scientists took advantage of the opportunity to explore the mine more. To assess the water, they looked at the gases that had been sealed inside of it. Gases like helium and xenon can trap water, and by looking for these gases, one can tell how old the water is.

In Canada’s Ontario province, a scientist collects a sample of water from a deep underground mine. B Sherwood Lollar and others

When people think about this water, they assume it must be some minute amount of water trapped within the rock, according to Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who presented the discovery. However, in actuality, it’s currently coming out at you in a big way. Much more than anyone had imagined, the water is streaming at rates of liters per minute.

Taking the fresh sample of water that is two billion years old. Source of the image: University of Toronto

However, the enormous age of the water is not the only important discovery. After examining the liquid, the experts found that it showed evidence of life. Even though real living germs have yet to be discovered, scientists did discover something that was effectively the life’s fingerprint. They can infer from this that the microbiology in the water has been present for a very long time.

The fact that anything has survived and even flourished in water that is so old and buried so deeply in the Earth has important repercussions. It might shed light on life on Earth billions of years ago and contribute in the search for extraterrestrial life. Rivers no longer flow on Mars’ surface, although pockets of water and ice still exist beneath the surface. Even while these pockets of water are not quite as deep as the water found in Canada, they may nonetheless have the conditions necessary for bacteria to survive.

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