2024-08-18 11:07:49
The analysis of the deposits allowed the team to provide a possible explanation for the events that may have led to a significant oxygenation event in the history of primitive Earth. The study was recently published in Precambrian Research.
“We have found a time capsule of the paleo-oceans,” stated Prakash Chandra Arya, a PhD student at the Center for Earth Science (CEaS) at IISc and the study’s first author, highlighting that the mineral deposits could hold valuable information about the conditions of the oceans.
“We don’t know much about the oceans of the past,” noted Chandra Arya. “How different or similar were they compared to today’s oceans? Were they more acidic or more basic, nutrient-rich or deficient, warm or cold, and what was their chemical and isotopic composition? Such knowledge could also provide clues about the past climate of the Earth, and this information can be useful for climate modeling,” he added.
The researchers explained that the found water deposits date back to the period referred to as “Snowball Earth,” a glacial period that occurred about 700 to 500 million years ago, which is why the discovery has been referred to as a “time capsule.”
Scientists believe that between 700 and 500 million years ago, the Earth presented thick ice layers that covered it for a prolonged period, known as the Snowball Earth glaciation.
So far, scientists have not fully understood the exact relationship between these events due to the scarcity of well-preserved fossils and the disappearance of ancient oceans. For this reason, the Himalayas, with their ancient marine rocks, would be a key point to provide some answers.