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Thursday, December 18, 2014, 10:44 AM - A Canadian-led team of researchers has discovered that Earth's crust holds a vast repository of ancient water, potentially billions of years old, that may be supporting a vast underground biosphere.
These new findings, published this week in the journal Nature and reported at the 2014 American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco, have important implications towards how life started on Earth, how it may have survived during times when the surface was being bombarded by asteroids, and even for whether life may exist on worlds such as Mars.
According to University of Toronto geoscientist Barbara Sherwood Lollar, wherever on Earth her team examined the planet's oldest rock formations - either by drilling deep into the ground or exploring mines - they found water. While this isn't unusual, as water can trickle far down through soil and rock, what was surprising was the large quantity of the water, how old some of it is - millions to billions of years old - and the energy locked up in the water, in the form of dissolved hydrogen gas.
originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
inb4 all the hollow-earthers come careening in here to hold up "Told you so" signs
originally posted by: stirling
The xtains will be along to tell you its the leftovers from Noahs flood soon......
hey Donald.....DUCK!
originally posted by: Brotherman
Could all this water help explain even further the idea of plate techtonics and why it is unique to earth in our solar system? I mean I understand the whole molten core idea but with another layer of massive amounts of water well wouldn't that be a part of it? I don't know alot of geology but figured I would throw that out there and maybe someone will learn me on this discoveries impact on that.
originally posted by: Brotherman
a reply to: Silcone Synapse
I was talking about the water under the surface and its relationship to plate techtonics from what I understand no other known planet in our solar system has plate techtonics.
originally posted by: Tardacus
It would be interesting to see what`s living in that water,maybe some microbes that hold the cure for cancer.