• Scientists uncover Isolated pocket of water underneath Canada with new Implications of Life on Mars
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[QUOTE]Scientists working 2.4 kilometres below Earth's surface in a Canadian mine have tapped a source of water that has remained isolated for at least a billion years. The researchers say they do not yet know whether anything has been living in it all this time, but the water contains high levels of methane and hydrogen — the right stuff to support life. Micrometre-scale pockets in minerals billions of years old can hold water that was trapped during the minerals’ formation. But no source of free-flowing water passing through interconnected cracks or pores in Earth’s crust has previously been shown to have stayed isolated for more than tens of millions of years. [...] The findings may also have implications for life on Mars, Ballentine says, though he acknowledges that the idea is speculative. The surface of Mars [URL="http://www.nature.com/news/meteorite-carries-ancient-water-from-mars-1.12145"]once held water[/URL] and its rocks are chemically no different from those on Earth, he says. “There is no reason to think the same interconnected fluids systems do not exist there.”[/QUOTE] Sounds like a primordial soup down there [URL="http://www.nature.com/news/reservoir-deep-under-ontario-holds-billion-year-old-water-1.12995"]Source[/URL]
Thought we've know that these pockets of water existed for a while: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water[/url]
What if some crazy Lovecraftian horror thing had been evolving down there the entire time? That'd be an interesting movie plot.
A Billion years is plenty time for something significant to evolve. But if youre hoping for the kraken i think its gonna be suffering the loch-ness dilemma. There is only so much space in the water, and resources in the food chain for a breeding population of apex predators, let alone a thriving one. [editline]16th May 2013[/editline] Unless ofcourse, this is some skull-island shit.
[QUOTE=Xenak;40665292]What if some crazy Lovecraftian horror thing had been evolving down there the entire time? That'd be an interesting movie plot.[/QUOTE] Provided it isn't written by Stephen King, where the monster is never shown for the first three-quarters of the movie, built up massively in suspense, and then when it is finally revealed it turns out to be a small alien child only seeking to go home blah blah blah. :v:
[QUOTE=SweetSwifter;40665626]Provided it isn't written by Stephen King, where the monster is never shown for the first three-quarters of the movie, built up massively in suspense, and then when it is finally revealed it turns out to be a small alien child only seeking to go home blah blah blah. :v:[/QUOTE] I thinking of something more like The Thing
[QUOTE=Angus725;40665290]Thought we've know that these pockets of water existed for a while: [URL]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fossil_water[/URL][/QUOTE] We have, but only ones that have been millions of years old. This one is at least a billion years old, which gives a lot of significant time for any organisms to evolve. If you don't want to hear it from me, I'd suggest you actually read the source. [B]EDIT: [/B]It even says in the quoted part of the article: "Micrometre-scale pockets in minerals billions of years old can hold water that was trapped during the minerals’ formation. But no source of free-flowing water passing through interconnected cracks or pores in Earth’s crust has previously been shown to have stayed isolated for more than tens of millions of years." This is actually kind of exciting. It makes me think about evolution on a lot of different levels, like what would happen if an organism was cut off from others and isolated in one of these small water pockets. Even if a worm was originally in this thing a billion years ago, there is absolutely no knowing what turns evolution may have taken in the time since then, we could just have a worm or some weird hybrid fish-worm-shark. Nobody knows because evolution is such a hard science to document seeing as we only live 100 years at a time.
[QUOTE=tarkata14;40666243]We have, but only ones that have been millions of years old. This one is at least a billion years old, which gives a lot of significant time for any organisms to evolve. If you don't want to hear it from me, I'd suggest you actually read the source.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The findings are “doubly interesting”, Ballentine says, because the fluid carries the ingredients necessary to support life. The isolated water supply, he says, provides “secluded biomes, ecosystems, in which life, you can speculate, might have even originated”. His colleagues are now working to establish whether the water does harbour life.[/QUOTE] There has to be a reason why this is more interesting to study. [editline]16th May 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=tarkata14;40666243] This is actually kind of exciting. It makes me think about evolution on a lot of different levels, like what would happen if an organism was cut off from others and isolated in one of these small water pockets. Even if a worm was originally in this thing a billion years ago, there is absolutely no knowing what turns evolution may have taken in the time since then, we could just have a worm or some weird hybrid fish-worm-shark. Nobody knows because evolution is such a hard science to document seeing as we only live 100 years at a time.[/QUOTE] You said it yourself.
I thought a little further on this, And it dawned on me that its "only" 400 million years since there was no life on land. No plants, no worms, nothing. Were talking trilobites and sea scorpions. So shit, we could find anything.
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