Produced by: Tarun Mishra
Scientists have identified that water appeared on Earth about four billion years ago, which is 500 million years earlier than previously thought.
Essential for life, the discovery of this revised timeline sheds new light on the conditions that allowed life to emerge on Earth.
Researchers from Curtin University's School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Khalifa University in the UAE conducted the study.
The team analysed ancient zircon crystals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia’s Mid-West region, focusing on the age and oxygen isotopes present in the crystals.
Credit: NASA
Zircon crystals can survive geological processes such as erosion and metamorphism, making them invaluable for geological studies and radiometric dating.
Credit: Robert Simmon, based on data from the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility.
Researchers found unusually light isotopic signatures dating back four billion years, indicative of hot, fresh water altering rocks several kilometres below Earth’s surface.
Co-author Dr. Hugo Olierook stated that the discovery is crucial for understanding how Earth formed and how life emerged, suggesting that landmasses and freshwater were present much earlier than previously thought.
Evidence of freshwater deep inside Earth challenges the existing theory that Earth was completely covered by ocean four billion years ago.
These findings mark a significant step forward in our understanding of Earth’s early history and open new avenues for exploring the origins of life on our planet.