Not a joke. Billion-year-old water found in Ontario, potentially contains life

[snagglepuss]

It’s older than cavemen. It predates the dinosaurs. And it just might contain clues to the possibility of life on Mars.

A team of U.K.-Canadian scientists have discovered billion-year-old water deep underground in an Ontario mine and, according to their research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, they think it might actually contain life.

“We've found an interconnected fluid system in the deep Canadian crystalline basement that is billions of years old, and capable of supporting life,” University of Manchester professor Chris Ballentine said in a news release. “Our finding is of huge interest to researchers who want to understand how microbes evolve in isolation, and is central to the whole question of the origin of life, the sustainability of life, and life in extreme environments and on other planets.”

Researchers from the universities of Manchester, Lancaster, Toronto and McMaster analyzed water pouring out of boreholes 2.4 kilometres underground near Timmins, Ontario.


Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/billion-year-old-water-found-in-ontario-potentially-contains-life-1.1282836#ixzz2TOHeOQY5

[liberal N proud]

1. Maybe it was the seed bank so the world could be started anew

And now man has gone and found it and destroyed that too.

Figures.

[Baitball Blogger]

2. Oh, dear. I think I saw this episode on X-files.

[Chakab]

21. ...

[lpbk2713]

3. Thus begins another sequel to Jurassic Park

[Poll_Blind]

4. I smell a new premium vodka! nt

PB

[phantom power]

5. DUzy ^^

[longship]

6. Nope, this is in Canada.

It would have to be beer.

Let me buy ya a beer, eh?


They could call it Pre-Cambrian Ale. (Well, somehow Mesoproterozoic Stout just doesn't trip off the tongue.)

[Spider Jerusalem]

19. Tell that to Dan Aykroyd:

"Pure Newfoundland water", etcetera.

[longship]

22. Once you distill it, the character of the water is irrelevant.

But the marketing still works, eh?

[KittyWampus]

29. WIN! One of the best DUZY's EVER

[Initech]

7. The question is can I make beer from it?

[Jenoch]

8. Have they sampled it yet?

If so, it is now contaminated.

When I first read the headline it occurred to me, "isn't ALL water over a billion years old"?

[knightmaar]

14. You can make water today

Hydrogen and Oxygen and what not.

As long as the water is pouring out of the holes, then it's uncontaminated up to the exit point. I'm guessing that they got its age from the balance of isotopes in the minerals that are in it.

Hard to say, since the article doesn't discuss it.

[Orrex]

18. I made water about half an hour ago.

Just saying.

[lumpy]

20. hehe

n

[Arugula Latte]

24. Thank you for that wee glimpse into your life.

[snagglepuss]

28. Good question. I don't know the answer but it's agood question.

[G_j]

9. mmm..

A nourishing cocktail containing hydrogen, methane and Noble gases? I don't know about this billion year old water harboring life forms. I would believe sulfur, but Noble gases are known for their inertness.

[Auntie Bush]

10. Interesting...but it must be a little stale.

[Warren DeMontague]

11. What did they find in Lake Vostok? Does anyone know?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok

According to wikipedia, the jury's still out. The shit about the kerosene contaminants, however, make me seriously question the Russian team's repeated assurances that they're not going to fuck up the water down there.

[LeftInTX]

12. There is some truth to this:

There is a region in Canada where rocks are billions of years old. If the water has been trapped that long, it could hold secrets about earth during that time.

[Ikonoklast]

15. They just broke with their latest finding ten minutes ago.

According to a joint press release by the researchers and universities involved:

"The ancient water that we have discovered located deep in Pre-Cambrain rocks under Northern Ontario has been found to definitely be...wet."

[Hekate]

13. "Potentially"... I hope it does!

“Our Canadian colleagues are trying to find out IF the water contains life right now,”

Given the environments in which life has been found, and given the depths at which even complex life-forms have been found, I'd say this is a good bet. I believe that those who say the entire Earth is alive are right.

[applegrove]

16. I hope they are extra careful when handling

those microbes.

[LeftinOH]

17. Shouldn't it be "water uncontaminated for 1 billion years found"..?

All water on Earth is the same age.

[Megalo_Man]

27. No it isn't.

you can make new water right now by combining hydrogen and oxygen

[Locut0s]

23. Very interesting but it will be hard to prove it's uncontaminated...

And even harder to prove that the life is descended from that a billion years old without surface contact/contamination.

[chuckrocks]

25. Proof of creationism

'cause there'd be koala bears living there by now.

[Larkspur]

26. Doesn't the Sahara have acquifers with rain water millions of years old?

This water is used today to irrigate crops and water livestock in Northern Africa.

The only problem I have with the billion year old water is did it seep into the mine from above or is the rock layer surrounding the water impenetrable by surface water seepage? Also, how old is the mine? Isn't water sometimes used to cool drill bits used to drill into the mine walls?