New discoveries are made about the Earth every year, from terrifying tribal instruments to fascinating ‘Lost Cities’ deep down in the ocean.
Perhaps the most fascinating of the lot though are those that uncover more about the Earth’s beginnings, and these often come in the form of minerals, metals, and other rare scientific materials.
Researchers have now made quite a significant breakthrough though after discovering that the world’s largest iron ore deposits actually formed much later than previously thought.
It is understood that these iron deposits were formed around 1.1 to 1.4 billion years ago, but a new study has uncovered that the trigger for their formation is linked to the breakup of the supercontinent Columbia.
The break up of supercontinents caused metallic ore deposits to form (QAI Publishing/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The breakup, estimated to have occurred 1.5 to 2.5 billion years ago, released mineral-rich fluids that allowed for the formation of these iron-rich ore deposits.
With this discovery and it’s link to these large iron deposits, scientists can now have a greater understanding of the Earth’s history, which could provide a domino effect to many other discoveries in the surrounding areas too.
Postdoctoral associate at the University of Colorado Liam Courtney-Davis explained that “the energy from this epic geological activity likely triggered the production of billions of tons of iron-rich rock from across Pilbara.”
He went on to unveil that “the discovery of a link between these giant iron ore deposits and changes in supercontinent cycles enhance our understanding of ancient geological processes and improves our ability to predict where we should explore in the future.”
Naturally occurring deposits are vital to both industry and research (Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
This is vital not only from a scientific perspective – as we’re able to learn more about Earth and its origins – but also from an industrial standpoint too, as mining operations will, in theory, be more sustainable and efficient.
Companies, armed with this information, will be able to greater predict where future metal deposits will be, which not only leads to stronger and more valuable yields but also hopefully less destructive and impactful practices too.
It remains yet to be seen how much this specific discovery will lead into further research, but with so much still to be uncovered about the history of our planet it’s hard to argue that its not a fantastic launching point.
Researchers have unlocked more secrets from the past after a new find has changed everything we thought we knew about the Earth’s history.
It has been uncovered that the world’s largest iron ore deposits, which form part of the Earth’s crust, formed significantly later than previously thought.
The iron ore deposits were found in Western Australia (Lucas Ninno/Getty)
These deposits are located in the Hamersley Province of Western Australia and were formed between 1.4 to 1.1 billion years ago.
It forms one of two pieces of crust that are part of Archaean Eon, which dates back to 3.8 billion to 2.5 billion years ago.
The second piece is located in southern Africa.
A new study has now found that the formation process of the deposits was actually triggered by a breakup of the supercontinent Columbia.
The supercontinent is thought to have existed around 2,500 to 1,500 million years ago and it’s thought that when it broke up, it released mineral-rich fluids which would have been vital for the creation of iron ore deposits.
The Earth has gone through stages of different supercontinents (Ianm35/Getty)
In a statement, the study’s lead author Liam Courtney-Davis, a geochronologist and postdoctoral associate at the University of Colorado, Boulder, said in a statement: “The energy from this epic geological activity likely triggered the production of billions of tons of iron-rich rock across the Pilbara.”
Linking the deposit formation to the break of the supercontinent has shed some new light on the geological history of the Earth.
This insight will arm scientists with more knowledge and could help with future exploration under the Earth’s surface.
The iron ore created after the break up of Columbia is an essential part of steel production, which supports other industries around the world.
The discovery has changed what scientists thought they knew about Earth’s geological history (John W. Banagan/Getty)
Courtney-Davis went on to add: “The discovery of a link between these giant iron ore deposits and changes in supercontinent cycles enhance our understanding of ancient geological processes and improves our ability to predict where we should explore in the future.”
This means that the information learnt from the study of the deposits could help geologists in the future to predict where other mineral deposits might be uncovered.
As a result, this could lead to more sustainable mining practices and more efficient methods of extracting these minerals moving forward.
Scientists are particularly excited about this find as they believe it will highlight the importance of tectonic movements in forming mineral deposits.
Discovering rare metals and minerals can be quite the profitable venture, as those discovered on Earth and even all the way up in space give the potential for a significant amount of money.
While the primary function of their discovery is often to help understand their origins, which commonly links to the origins of Earth and other similar planets, you can’t help but gawk at the value proposition too.
That is very much the case when scientists discovered iron pieces within a Western Australian ore deposit, which illuminate much of Earth’s geological history including how the separation of supercontinents allowed precious metals to form.
The iron discovered tells scientists a lot about the Earth’s geological origins (Liam Courtney-Davies/Curtin University)
And precious these metals are indeed, as while iron isn’t as valuable as rare-Earth minerals like neodymium and gallum, it starts to stack up if you’ve got a big chunk of it.
The Hamersley Province, where these iron pieces were found and formed over one billion years ago, is recognized as the world’s largest iron ore deposit, amassing more than 55 billion tons (50 metric gigatons) of the metal, as reported by Live Science.
Iron ore currently only trades at around $102 per metric ton, which is peanuts compared to something like nickel which sells for just under $16,000 for the same amount, but if you’ve got a lot of it then it doesn’t really matter does it?
If the deposit were to sell all of its ore at the current price of iron then it would net a tidy $5,904,500,000,000,000, which in words breaks down to five quadrillion nine hundred four trillion five hundred billion. Not too bad, eh?
The Hamersley Province holds a significant amount of money (Richard Woldendorp/Photo Index)
If you were to split that staggering figure between every single person on Earth then you’d be landed with a handy $735,763.
That doesn’t quite compare to the $1,246,105,919 that everyone would be entitled to if NASA are able to capture a metal-rich asteroid floating beyond Mars, but it’s a bit more realistic.
Of course, mining all of this iron would take a significant amount of time, and it’s needed for far more than just it’s monetary value, but it certainly makes you think about how much things that are natural to the Earth can be worth.
The discovery itself is fascinating enough though, as it has unveiled so much that scientists were previously unaware of regarding the separation of supercontinents.
We’d all be lying if said we wouldn’t rather $750,000 in our pockets though, right?
Located on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), Lake Vostok is buried some 13,100 ft beneath the ice and could date back as far as 35 million years. As the world’s 16th largest lake (by surface area), Lake Vostok also enters the history books as its largest subglacial lake.
Lake Vostok is the world’s biggest subglacial lake (Google Earth / NASA)
Although Russian geographer Andrey Kapitsa speculated about a subglacial lake in that region during Soviet Antarctic Expeditions in 1959 and 1964, Lake Vostok wasn’t officially confirmed until 1993.
Split into two basins that are separated by a ridge, the northern basin has liquid water that’s around 400 meters deep and reaches 800 meters deep in the southern basin. There’s a debate over the age of Vostok Lake due to ice just above it being dated to around 400,000 years, but others suggest it could go back to the formation of the EAIS some 35 million years ago.
Research is relatively new, and it was only in 2013 that Russian scientists managed to pull a core of freshly frozen lake ice. As that sample was contaminated with the Freon and kerosene used to stop the borehole from freezing, they had to go back to gain a ‘pure’ sample in 2015.
There are hopes that a team will eventually be able to lower a probe to reach water samples and even sediment from the base of Lake Vostok.
Scientists are only just scratching the surface of this buried ecosystem, but as research continues, Lake Vostok could help shape our continued visits to the stars and hopes of learning more about planets like Jupiter and Saturn.
Jupiter’s moon of Europa is also thought to have icy oceans (Stocktrek Images / Getty)
Importantly, the conditions in Lake Vostok are thought to be similar to the ice-covered oceans that astronomers think lie buried on Jupiter’s moon of Europa and Saturn’s moon of Enceladus. There are hopes that continued drills down to Lake Vostok can aid our search for life on ice-covered worlds out in the cosmos.
2013 research published in PLOS ONE reports on 3,500 different DNA sequences that were extracted from the layers of ice just above the surface of Lake Vostok. Although 95% of these were bacteria, 5% pointed to more complex lifeforms. Some of the bacteria found is typically found in fish guts, leading to speculation that it’s come from fish found in Lake Vostok. Even though the exact age of Lake Vostok remains a mystery, there are theories that it contains a unique ecosystem that’s changing conditions mean lifeforms evolved differently from the rest of Earth.
Don’t expect some out-there alien fish that might also be lurking on Europa and Enceladus, but until we know what exactly is down there, you never know.
Around 11 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Mars, blasting chunks of the planet into space.
One of these pieces eventually crash-landed on Earth and is now known as the Lafayette Meteorite – one of the rare meteorites that can be directly traced back to Mars.
Water was on Mars, we know it. But scientists have struggled to piece together when, how and what happened to it.
Now, one major clue has advanced the discovery.
An international team of scientists, including two from Purdue University‘s College of Science, managed to date minerals in the Lafayette Meteorite and found they formed about 742 million years ago.
The lead author, Marissa Tremblay, assistant professor in Purdue’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS), explained that some Martian meteorites contain minerals formed through interactions with liquid water while still on Mars.
Tremblay, who specialises in how chemical processes shape planetary surfaces, said: “Dating these minerals can, therefore, tell us when there was liquid water at or near the surface of Mars in the planet’s geologic past.
“We dated these minerals in the Martian meteorite Lafayette and found they formed 742 million years ago.”
She added: “We do not think there was abundant liquid water on the surface of Mars at this time. Instead, we think the water came from the melting of nearby subsurface ice called permafrost and that the permafrost melting was caused by magmatic activity that still occurs periodically on Mars to the present day.”
Tremblay and her team showed that the water-related changes in the Lafayette Meteorite happened millions of years ago on Mars—and that this timing is accurate.
Despite the impact of being blasted off Mars, spending 11 million years in space and crashing into Earth, none of them affected the age of the water interaction they found.
Ryan Ickert, a senior research scientist at Purdue and co-author of the study, explained that earlier attempts to figure out when water interacted with rocks on Mars weren’t always reliable.
This new evidence provides a more precise and accurate date for when water was present on Mars, uncovering more about the Red Planet’s history.
The Lafayette Meteorite was likely blasted off Mars’ surface about 11 million years ago during an asteroid impact. While floating in space, it was bombarded by cosmic rays which created certain isotopes within it.
This evidence doesn’t just uncover Mars’ backstory but also the Solar System and how our planet Earth got its water all those years ago.
“We have demonstrated a robust way to date alteration minerals in meteorites that can be applied to other meteorites and planetary bodies to understand when liquid water might have been present,” Tremblay concluded.
