An international team of researchers has discovered a 1.2-billion-year-old underground source of water in a gold and uranium mine in South Africa.
The findings were published in a journal.
Oliver Warr is a research associate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto and the lead author of the study. We can learn how to use it for the benefit of the deep biosphere on a global scale.
Ten years ago, we discovered billion-year-old water from below the Canadian Shield, and it seems like it's just the beginning. The extreme outposts of the world's water cycle are more widespread than previously thought.
The host rock is rich in minerals and has radioactive elements in it. The elements hold new information about the role of the ground in generating power for groups of cohabitating organisms. Radiogenic reactions occur in the surrounding rocks and fluids when elements like plutonium, thorium, and potassium decay in the ground.
Large amounts of radiogenic helium, neon, xenon and argon were found, as well as an unprecedented discovery of an isotope of krypton. In a process called radiolysis, the radiation breaks apart water molecule in a process that produces large concentrations of hydrogen, an essential energy source for underground communities that are unable to access energy from the sun for photosynthesis.
Due to their small mass, helium and neon are very useful for determining transport potential. The waters in which they are found are mostly isolated and rarely mix, accounting for their 1.2 billion year age.
The deflation of a helium-filled balloon is similar to the penetration of solid materials such as plastic. The results show that the majority of the helium and neon originally produced by the radiogenic reactions will be transported through the overlying crust.
The researchers stress that the study's new insights on how much helium diffuses up from the deep Earth is a critical step forward as global helium reserves run out.
Humans are not the only life-forms that rely on the Earth's energy resources. Since the radiogenic reactions produce both hydrogen and helium, we can learn a lot about the helium and hydrogen in the deep Earth.
Warr notes that these calculations are important for understanding how life on Earth is sustained and what energy can be found on other planets and moons in the solar system.
The University of Oxford's C.J. Ballentine is one of the additional co- authors of the paper.
More information: O. Warr et al, 86Kr excess and other noble gases identify a billion-year-old radiogenically-enriched groundwater system, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-31412-2 Journal information: Nature Communications
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