150 Million Year Old Seawater discovered near Chesapeake Bay

Not only is the Chesapeake Bay so enormous it can be seen from space, it essentially came from outer space.

An asteroid or huge chunk of ice slammed into Earth about 35 million years ago, splashing into the Early Cretaceous North Atlantic, sending tsunamis as far as the Blue Ridge Mountains and leaving a 56-mile-wide hole at the mouth of what is now the bay.

But a newly published research paper written by U.S. Geological Survey scientists shows that wasn’t the end of it. While drilling holes in southern Virginia to study the impact crater, the scientists discovered “the oldest large body of ancient seawater in the world,” a survivor of that long-gone sea, resting about a half-mile underground near the bay, according to the USGS.

“What we essentially discovered was trapped water that’s twice the salinity of [modern] seawater,” said Ward Sanford, a USGS hydrologist. “In our attempt to find out the origin, we found it was Early Cretaceous seawater. It’s really water that’s from the North Atlantic.”

Seawater discovered near the Chesapeake Bay is up to 150 million years old


The Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater was discovered in 1999 by a group of USGS and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality scientists.
Five years after the Chesapeake crater’s discovery, Sanford’s USGS team started drilling at Cape Charles, Va., to study how the earth’s crust absorbed the blow.

What they were not looking for, but found, was ancient seawater.

Through tests and digging, the research established that the chemistry was consistent with the vast halite deposits created during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Basins.

The findings showing that the water is probably between 100 million and 150 million years old were published Thursday in the journal Nature.
www.nature.com...

How interesting is that! I was unaware of the impact crater or that Virginia is sinking. I often wish I'd studied geology too. The current oceans have a lower salinity than the discovered water. Does anyone know why that would be? Melting ice over the years?

reply to post by snarky412


Heck, I'd drink a shot of it, why not, it's a 150 million years old.... Double the salinity means a doubly-good night!

reply to post by jhn7537


Of crapping your pants

Hijinx
reply to post by jhn7537

 

Of crapping your pants

The ultimate cleanse??? Count me in!!!

Nice! The universe has many knock out punches but we just wont go down!
2.7 billion(orly) year old lake
Reminded me of this. Not sure about 2.7 billion year but it's definitely interesting.

derbz
Nice! The universe has many knock out punches but we just wont go down!
2.7 billion(orly) year old lake
Reminded me of this. Not sure about 2.7 billion year but it's definitely interesting.

Thanks for the link.......


Per your article:

Tests by researchers have shown that the water is at least 1.5 billion years old, but the surrounding geology suggests it could be much older, dating to a time when all of life on Earth had not evolved much beyond primitive, single-celled microbes.

The scientists said they intend to analyse the water for signs of life, which could help in the development of techniques for finding extra-terrestrial life-forms living within underground pockets of water on either Mars or Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.

Love this stuff!!
Appreciate it~
snarky

Great. Now the prehistoric saltwater mega-piranha are going to get loose.

reply to post by jhn7537


Ha ha, I suppose. But find something to hold on to, the results may be astronomical !

I love the avatar by the way, reminds me o better days ha ha.

reply to post by snarky412


Well for one salinity of sea water is not even constant it varies from one location to another. The main deciding factor is not even ice. If an area has more evaporation then precipitation it will have higher salt content. If an area receives more rain then is evaporated low salinity. So things like tropical storms lower salinity in the water.

A bit confused here, the impact is supposed to have been 35 million years ago but the water is 150 million years old? If the water got trapped because of the impact then wouldn't it be the same age??

reply to post by Sakrateri


im glad im not the only one confused on that one

reply to post by Sakrateri


But the water didn't appear with the impact. It was already here. It was only trapped by the impact. if what I am making up is anything to go by.

and after the impact, the rest of the water got eaten by dinosaurs and cave men, and turned into steam and wee. I dunno.

but something like that.

?

reply to post by winofiend


But in a slightly less comedic fashion yes.

I'm a little perplexed as to how the water was trapped by the impact, it would make more sense that impact opened a cavern it filled with water and was later sealed by other natural processes.

Not saying it's impossible I just can not imagine how.