The doctor. Hamed Gamaleldienresearch associate at the Curtin School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and assistant professor at Khalifa University, United Arab Emirates, said: when examining ancient crystals of Jack Hills in the Mid-West region of Western Australia, researchers have revised the timeline for the appearance of fresh water until a few hundred million years after the formation of the planet.
Very hot European summers linked to freshwater anomalies in the North Atlantic from previous years
“We were able to date the origins of the hydrological cycle, which is the continuous process through which water moves around the Earth and is crucial to sustaining ecosystems and sustaining life on our planet.“said Dr. Gamaleldien.
“By examining the age and oxygen isotopes in small crystals of the mineral zircon, we found unusually light isotopic signatures dating back four billion years. These light oxygen isotopes typically result from the alteration of rocks by hot, fresh water several kilometers below the Earth’s surface. surface.
“The evidence for fresh water at this depth in the Earth’s interior challenges the existing theory that the Earth was completely covered by an ocean four billion years ago.“.
The doctor. Hugo Olierookco-author from the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin University, highlighted the importance of this discovery for understanding the formation of the Earth and the emergence of life.
“This discovery not only sheds light on the early history of the Earth, but also suggests that lland masses and fresh water set the stage for life to flourish in a relatively short period of time: less than 600 million years after the planet formed“said Dr. Olierook.
“The findings mark an important step forward in our understanding of Earth’s early history and open doors for further exploration of the origins of life.“.
Reference
Gamaleldien, H., Wu, LG., Olierook, HKH et al. Onset of the Earth’s hydrological cycle four billion years ago or earlier. Nat. Geosci. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01450-0
This entry was published in News on 09 Jun 2024 by Francisco Martín León
