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When Barbara Sherwood Lollar sent water samples to a colleague for testing, she knew this was no ordinary water. Tests pegged the mean age of the samples, from a mine north of Timmins, Ont., at 1.6 billion years old—the oldest ever found on Earth. https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/this-geologist-found-the-oldest-water-on-earth-in-a-canadian-mine/
The journey from the surface to the water source in the mine takes up to an hour, down to a depth of 2,377 m. Down there, the walls are warm to the touch and the water temperature is at least 25° C. https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/this-geologist-found-the-oldest-water-on-earth-in-a-canadian-mine/
A closer look found that tiny chemolithotrophic microbes—an example, as Sherwood Lollar puts it, of life “hanging on by its toenails”—were present in the water and feasting on hydrogen and sulfate. https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/this-geologist-found-the-oldest-water-on-earth-in-a-canadian-mine/
If water can breed life far beneath Timmins, there’s a chance the same is true on the Red Planet. The ancient water might help answer the question: could there be life on other planets? https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/this-geologist-found-the-oldest-water-on-earth-in-a-canadian-mine/
Read the full story: https://www.macleans.ca/society/science/this-geologist-found-the-oldest-water-on-earth-in-a-canadian-mine/
