Posted on 12/20/2016 1:44:17 PM PST by NYer
Deep within a mine in Canada, there is a pool of water bubbling out of the ground. It’s close to 2 miles below the surface of the earth and, according to the scientists who discovered it, it’s been there for 2 billion years, making it the oldest pool of water in the world.
Previously that record was held by a pool further up in the mine, about 1.5 miles down, which was discovered in 2013 and given the age of 1.5 billion years.
The scientists date the water by analysing the gases trapped inside. As the CBC explains, gases like helium and xenon accumulate in the water while it’s stuck in rock fractures. Measuring those concentrations can tell the researchers how old the water is.
What’s unique about this water is that it’s been conserved for all that time. Much of the water on this planet has an even older origin: half of the water on Earth is actually melted interstellar ice that predates the sun.
As the BBC reports, the most fascinating aspect of these billion-year-old pools of water is the possibility that they could reveal more about life on Earth billions of years ago. The scientists have detected signs that single-celled organisms once lived in this water, which is now about eight times saltier than seawater.
This picture shows ALL of Earth's water (liquid, ice, freshwater, and salt water) as a sphere. It would be about 860 miles in diameter (about the distance from Salt Lake City, Utah to Topeka, Kansas, USA). Credit: Illustration by Jack Cook, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution; USGS.
Who said it melted?
It could have simply accreted as ice crystals, then waited for the sun to start up and melt it.
We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I’m really with you now
Or just chasin’ after some finer day
Sub-lim-m-a-tion
Sub-lim-m-a-tion
Is makin’ me late
Is keepin’ me waitin’
Joni Mitchell wrote “Woodstock” and, ironically, chose to not attend the event.
Although her original version was slow & haunting, I prefer her more upbeat, jazzy version in her live album, “Miles of Aisles”.
Looks more like Pasta Sauce to me.
You’re right, but the article is about a “pool of water” rather than chemical water.
There was no BB. Violates the first law of thremodynamics
There are indeed some serious problems with the standard Big Bang theory, but that doesn't appear to be one of them.
"... Therefore, to those who claim that the very idea of a Big Bang violates the First Law of Thermodynamics (also known as the Law of Conservation of Energy) that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed, proponents respond that the Big Bang does not address the creation of the universe, only its evolution, and that, as the laws of science break down anyway as we approach the creation of the universe, there is no reason to believe that the First Law of Thermodynamics would apply.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics, on the other hand, lends theoretical (albeit inconclusive) support to the idea of a finite universe originating in a Big Bang type event. If disorder and entropy in the universe as a whole is constantly increasing until it reaches thermodynamic equilibrium, as the Law suggests, then it follows that the universe cannot have existed forever, otherwise it would have reached its equilibrium end state an infinite time ago, our Sun would have exhausted its fuel reserves and died long ago, and the constant cycle of death and rebirth of stars would have ground to a halt after an eternity of dissipation of energy, losses of material to black holes, etc.
Hmmm, makes sense. It’s over 35, its natural, and Canada is practically the US...
We’re all recycled stardust, which kind of makes me feel spatial...
In the semiconductor industry it’s common to burn hydrogen and oxygen to make hyper pure water for some processes.
The wafers are oxidized with the help of literarily new water.
4004 BC+2017AD is 6021, not 6016.
At least get your math right, if nothing else.
With a few grains of 'magic dust' somewhere sprinkled in.
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