2023-08-03 10:52:10
Salina – WALLPAPERFLARE.COM
MADRID, 3 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Tiny drops of ancestral water identified in sea salt have made it possible to reconstruct the changes in seawater chemistry over the past 150 million years.
Scientists from Princeton and Binghamton universities also obtained information on related geological processes and climate changes. Publish findings in journal Science Advances.
The ocean “it’s like a giant soup of different elements”, explained author Tim Lowenstein, professor of Earth sciences at Binghamton. “Sodium and chloride are the most common, but there are dozens of others dissolved in trace amounts in seawater, such as lithium.”
They examined sea salt (halite) formed at various times over the past 150 million years in geographically diverse sedimentary basins in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Inside the salt samples were small bags containing some ancient seawater..
To access the tiny droplets, the researchers used a laser to drill into the salt crystals and then a mass spectrometer to analyze the different trace elements present. In this research, they specifically focused on the concentration of lithium, a trace element that suffered a seven-fold decline over the past 150 million years, parallel to an increase in the proportion of magnesium and calcium.
The cause of long-term variations in seawater composition has been debated for the past two decades. The researchers proposed that the decline in lithium concentration in seawater is primarily associated with reduced production of oceanic crust and decreased seafloor hydrothermal activity, which are influenced by the movements of the tectonic plates.
The slowdown in plate activity over the past 150 million years led to less lithium being added to the ocean and reduced amounts of carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, ultimately leading to global cooling and the current ice age. . Turning back the clock 150 million years, the earth was a warmer place with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and more lithium in the sea.
“There is a close link between ocean chemistry and atmospheric chemistry,” Weldeghebriel said. “Any changes that happen in the ocean also reflect what is happening in the atmosphere.”
Overall, Weldeghebriel and Lowenstein’s research has made significant progress in understanding the chemistry of Earth’s ancient oceans and how the movement of plate tectonics has influenced the composition of our Earth’s hydrosphere and atmosphere. Such chemical changes also affect biology, like sea creatures that build their shells out of calcium carbonate.
“The oceans and the atmosphere are connected to each other, and the way they change is related,” Lowenstein explained. “Everything is connected.”
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