For those who got here throughout water that was greater than two billion years outdated, what would you do? Would you be tempted to drink it immediately? After discovering the planet’s oldest water, one scientist really did that.
Apparently, in 2016, a staff from the College of Toronto, led by Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, made an incredible discovery whereas investigating a Canadian mine.
The water supply they found was between 1.5 billion and a pair of.64 billion years outdated, in line with the examine’s checks. It was the oldest factor ever found on Earth, contemplating how remoted it was.
Curiously, the checks additionally revealed that there was as soon as life within the water.
Professor Sherwood Lollar stated in an interview with BBC Information that when folks take into consideration this water, they presume it have to be a minute quantity of water trapped throughout the rock.
“However in reality, it’s extremely a lot effervescent proper up out at you. These items are flowing at charges of litres per minute; the amount of the water is way bigger than anybody anticipated.”
Discussing the presence of life within the water, Sherwood Lollar added: “By wanting on the sulphate within the water, we had been in a position to see a fingerprint that is indicative of the presence of life.”
The professor continued: “And we had been in a position to point out that the sign we’re seeing within the fluids has to have been produced by microbiology and, most significantly, has to have been produced over a really very long time scale.”
Whereas hinting on the age of the water, she stated: “The microbes that produced this signature could not have achieved it in a single day. This must be a sign that organisms have been current in these fluids on a geological timescale.”
Individuals can go to extraordinary lengths to fulfill their curiosity, particularly scientists, and doing simply that, the professor additionally revealed that she tried the water for herself.
“For those who’re a geologist who works with rocks, you’ve got in all probability licked quite a lot of rocks,” Sherwood Lollar advised CNN.
Nevertheless, the actual query is: how wouldn’t it have tasted? Did it have a odor? Did it change into slimy?
She revealed that the water was “very salty and bitter” and “a lot saltier than seawater.” Does her revelation now tempt you to drink water that’s greater than a billion years outdated?