The world’s oldest water?

Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council ^ | February 19, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Washington — New evidence bolsters the notion that deep saline groundwaters in South Africa's Witwatersrand Basin may have remained isolated for many thousands, perhaps even millions, of years.

The study, recently accepted for publication in Chemical Geology, found the noble gas neon dissolved in water in three-kilometre deep crevices.

The unusual neon profile, along with the high salinities and some other unique chemical signatures, is very different from anything seen in molten fluid and gases rising from beneath the Earth's crust, according to University of Toronto professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who is the Canadian member of the international team that produced the results.

"The chemical signatures also don't match those of ocean water or waters higher up in the Witwatersrand Basin, where as in most regions of the crust ground waters show evidence of mixing with surface waters and are extensively colonized by microorganisms," she said. "We concluded that the deeper waters were the product of isolation and extensive chemical interaction between water and rock over incredibly long geological time scales."

The smoking gun was the ancient basement rock.

"We know that this specific neon isotope signature was produced and trapped within the rock at least two billion years ago. We can still find it there today," Dr. Sherwood Lollar said. "The study shows some of the neon found its way outside of the rock minerals, gradually dissolving into, and accumulating in, fluids in crevices. This could only happen in waters that have indeed been cut off from the surface for extremely long time periods."

The discovery adds yet another dimension to what has only recently been recognized as a truly unique environment.

One of these fracture systems contains the deepest known microbial ecosystems on Earth. These are organisms that eke out an existence independent from sunlight on chemical energy that originates from rock.

"These deep microbial communities radically expand our concept of the habitability of the Earth's subsurface and, indeed, our biosphere," said Dr. Sherwood Lollar.

"Given that they have a genetic similarity to organisms found at hydrothermal vents, we assume this is not a separate origin of life, but instead these organisms arrived from elsewhere to colonize these rocks in ancient times," she said.

"Clearly the long period of isolation affected their evolution. This is one area we hope to explore with continuing research with our microbiology colleagues."

The lead author of the paper is Johanna Lippmann-Pipke of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf in Leipzig, Germany. Researchers from that country, South Africa, the United States and Canada participated in the study.

Dr. Sherwood Lollar will be available to discuss the new findings at this year's meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, DC. On Sunday, February 20, she will take part in a panel discussion on global water issues at the Think Canada Press Breakfast. ###

Dr. Sherwood Lollar receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Contact:

Arnet Sheppard NSERC

Tel.: 1-613-293-3502

E-mail: arnet.sheppard@nserc-crsng.gc.ca

[muawiyah]

Given long enough time many isotopes of rather common elements will decay into OTHER STUFF. Then there's stuff like RADIOACTIVE TUNGSTEN ~ it will decay right under your nose and stick alpha particles in your gizzard (and you thought lightbulbs weren't dangerous eh).

Well, anyway, given enough time you get to find out what's stable and what's not stable ~ jus' the way it is. New stuff allatime!

[SuziQ]

Ping!

[Islander7]

The world’s oldest water?

I wonder if it is stale?

[whd23]

Not accurate. Atoms heavier than helium are created in the later stages of a star's life-cycle with those heavier than iron formed during stellar collapse. So technically the H in H₂O is older than the O.

http://aether.lbl.gov/www/tour/elements/stellar/stellar_a.html

[AndrewB]

So you’re a Pepsi man then?

[bunkerhill7]

Scientists find oldest neon beer sign in Capetown pub

[GOYAKLA]

I like my Bourbon neat and haven’t tasted a Pepsi since1953. Basil Hayden, Van Winkle, Makers Mark # 46 and the best Suntory Yamasaki. Try a sample.

http://www.suntory.com/yamazaki/12and18year.html
The best to you and yours, what ever you drink or don’t!

[cynwoody]

I hate to rain on the parade but ... Everything on Earth is the same initial age.

Irrelevant! Are you on Earth? Are you 4.2 billion years old?

Here are some folks posing with 420,000 year old ice cores they drilled out of the 12,000-foot thick Antarctic ice cap.

Why would you freeze your ass off digging up ancient ice? Because it contains tiny bubbles of air, preserved as they were the day they were trapped. That air has been separated from the rest of Earth's air since it was trapped (how long ago depends on how far down). It's interesting to pass it through a mass spectrometer and compare the results to today's randomly mixed air. There is no other way to get such information.

[SatinDoll]

Please clarify your statement, “...all of the elements were created at the exact same time. They have been forming compounds and breaking up ever since.”

You are assuming all compounds, in water and atmosphere, have remained the same over time.

[Jeff Chandler]

[Thumper1960]

People that do that are the same as those that put Coke in 12 Year+ Bourbon.

Some of us put our Coke in day old bathtub gin. The fresher the alkyhaul, the better, ya know.

[Tainan]

"We concluded that the deeper waters were the product of isolation and extensive chemical interaction between water and rock over incredibly long geological time scales."

....ya think?

[GOYAKLA]

Doesn’t that make the “Coke” hard to smoke? ;*}

Joke for Martini drinkers: Four guys arguing who makes the driest martinis.
First says three parts Gin to one Vermouth. Next guy says he just dips the cork from the Vermouth in the Gin. Third guy says three parts Gin and he whispers the word “Vermouth” over the drink. Fourth guy says “Loud Mouth!”.

[Thumper1960]

“Coca-Cola”.

Not the original recipe either, sm@rt@rse.

;-P

[Thumper1960]

I suppose #4 simply thinks of the vermouth....in a quantum physics way.

[SunkenCiv]

· GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach · · join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·
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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon. Climate, extremophile. panspermia topic ping.

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[SunkenCiv]

Thanks decimon. Climate, extremophile. panspermia topic ping.

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Google news searches: exoplanet · exosolar · extrasolar ·

[Tijeras_Slim]

The oldest water is retained by Helen Thomas.

[blam]

Start a rumor. Drinking the water makes you young again. Then,
we can call it the fountain of youth.