World's Oldest Water Lies At The Bottom Of A Canadian Mine And Is 2 Billion Years Old (2024)

Don't drink the forbidden prehistoric water.

World's Oldest Water Lies At The Bottom Of A Canadian Mine And Is 2 Billion Years Old (7)

In 2016, deep down within a Canadian mine researchers made an ancient discovery: the world's oldest pool of water. At a depth of roughly 3 kilometers (1.8 miles), the water dates to an impressive 2 billion years old.

The discovery pushed back the date for the oldest known water by at least 500 million years. The previous record was held by water found in the same mine by the same team back in 2013, and came from a depth of around 2.5 kilometers. The mine is in fact the deepest basal metal mine in the world, as the search for copper, zinc, and silver is taking the miners deeper and deeper into the Earth’s crust.

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When the miners dug deeper, the researchers took the opportunity to explore further into the mine. They analyzed the water discovered by studying the gases trapped inside. Gases like helium and xenon can get trapped in water stuck in rock cracks, and measuring these can tell how old the water is.

“When people think about this water they assume it must be some tiny amount of water trapped within the rock,” Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who presented the discovery, told BBC News. “But in fact, it’s very much bubbling right up out at you. These things are flowing at rates of liters per minute –the volume of the water is much larger than anyone anticipated.”

What is more, the vast age of the water is not the only important discovery. When the researchers analyzed the liquid, they found traces of life within it. While they are yet to find actual living bacteria, what they did discover was, in effect, the fingerprint of life. From this, they are able to infer that there has been some form of microbiology living within the water and over a very long time period.

The fact that something has been able to survive, and indeed flourish, in water that is so old and so deep within the Earth has some important implications. Not only can it tell us about life on Earth billions of years ago, but it may also help in the search for life off-world. While rivers no longer flow on the surface of Mars, there are still pockets of water and ice under the surface. These are nowhere near as deep as the water discovered in Canada, and it is possible that these pockets could provide the conditions necessary for microorganisms to live.

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An earlier version of this article was published on IFLScience in July 2016.


World's Oldest Water Lies At The Bottom Of A Canadian Mine And Is 2 Billion Years Old (2024)

FAQs

World's Oldest Water Lies At The Bottom Of A Canadian Mine And Is 2 Billion Years Old? ›

Deep within a mine in Canada, there is a pool of water bubbling out of the ground. It's close to 2 miles below the surface of the earth and, according to the scientists who discovered it, it's been there for 2 billion years, making it the oldest pool of water in the world.

What is the 2 billion year old water Canadian mine? ›

However, scientists have found water that is a lot older. The water trapped in Ontario's Kidd Creek Mine is more than 2 billion years old!

Where is the world's oldest water? ›

In the deepest chambers of a northern Ontario mine, scientists have discovered the oldest water on Earth - over 2 billion years old.

Did scientists recently found 1.5 billion year old water in Canada? ›

(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working deep in a mine in Canada has found water samples that date back approximately 2 billion years, breaking the record of oldest discovered water on the surface of the Earth by approximately 500 million years.

What is the oldest water system in the world? ›

India's Indus River Valley contains the world's oldest known water pipes. The copper pipes ran through a palace complex around 4000–3000 BCE. Around the same time, Ancient Egyptians and Minoans had established vast networks of underground water systems.

Which world's oldest water lies at the bottom of a Canadian mine? ›

It's almost 2 miles down in a Canadian mine.

Deep within a mine in Canada, there is a pool of water bubbling out of the ground. It's close to 2 miles below the surface of the earth and, according to the scientists who discovered it, it's been there for 2 billion years, making it the oldest pool of water in the world.

How much of the world's water comes from Canada? ›

Canada has 7% of the world's renewable fresh water. It is easy for Canadians to assume that they have an almost endless supply of clean, fresh water. After all, we're often told that Canada has some 20% of the world's total freshwater resources.

What does billion year old water taste like? ›

"Because of the reactions between the water and the rock, it is extremely salty. It is more viscous than tap water. It has the consistency of a very light maple syrup.

What is the oldest living thing on Earth? ›

The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva) is a species of pine tree. It is found in the American West, mostly in Utah, Nevada, and California. One of these trees has been measured to be over 4,850 years old!

Is our water older than the Earth? ›

"This means that water in our solar system was formed long before the sun, planets, and comets formed," Merel van 't 'Hoff, a University of Michigan astronomer and co-author of the paper, says in the news release.

How did people drink water 1000 years ago? ›

They could also dig deep into the earth to find water. “What people did way back in ancient times is they looked for water that was flowing or they used groundwater,” Padowski said. “Groundwater from deep down in the earth is often safer to drink because it's more protected from contamination.”

Is Canada selling its water? ›

Canada has 7% of the world's renewable supply of freshwater. Freshwater export between Canada and the US currently takes place at a small scale, mostly as bottled water exports. The bottled water industry exports water in containers usually no larger than twenty litres.

Do we drink the same water that was on Earth a million years ago? ›

Did you know that the Earth has been recycling water for over 4 billion years? Every living thing on Earth needs water to survive and the water that we drink today is the same water that wooly mammoths, dinosaurs, and the first humans ever drank!

Was water ever free? ›

Of course it wasn't. Nothing is ever free. Before privatisation, you paid for your water via “water rates”. It was like a tax.

Where was water before Earth? ›

There are numerous theories about how Earth got its water. Most fall into two categories: Either Earth was born with the molecular precursors of water already present, or water-laden space rocks like asteroids and comets brought water here after the planet's formation.

How old is the oldest water? ›

In 2016, geologists studying a Canadian mine made an incredible discovery. At a depth of about 3 kilometers (1.8 miles), they found flowing water, which tests revealed to be between 1.5 billion and 2.64 billion years old. Having been isolated for all this time, it was the oldest water that had been found on Earth.

What is the oldest mine in Canada? ›

The first truly industrial mining operation in what is now Canada was an iron mine at Forges du Saint-Maurice near Trois-Rivières in Quebec, which remained a going concern from 1738 to 1883. Copper mining in Bruce Mines, Ontario—the first industrial-scale mine of a substance other than iron—followed in 1848.

What is the most contaminated mine in Canada? ›

Three of Canada's top five most expensive federal contaminated sites are abandoned mines in the North: Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories at an estimated $4.38 billion and the Faro and United Keno Hill mines in Yukon at $1 billion and $125 million, respectively.

Why is mine water so blue? ›

But the culprit for the beautiful blue is the limestone! Limestone is composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and is white in color.

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