On Earth, water is very important to life and is an important part of life's body. Therefore, water is one of the most common substances on Earth.
According to survey data, about 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by water, and although there is relatively little moisture in the air, it is also an important part of the air.
Water at room temperature is a colorless, tasteless, odorless liquid, which is mainly composed of hydrogen and oxygen. However, with the continuous exploration of science, human beings have found that there is still very "ancient" water on the earth - that is, ancient groundwater, which has aroused a lot of heated discussion.
And the journal Nature has published a study, in South Africa found "ancient groundwater", another 1 billion years, and found rare substances in it, once again triggered the scientific community on the "ancient water", what is going on? We look at it from the formation of water sources.
Where does the water on Earth come from?
There are many theories about where the earth's water comes from, in fact, there are many theories, anyway, there are different theories, mainly divided into two kinds of theories - respectively, "exogenous theory" and "endogenous theory".
Exogenous theory, meaning that Earth's water is transmitted to Earth from outside the earth, and the main celestial bodies contain comets and water-rich asteroids. When these objects hit the Earth, they will transport water to the Earth.
For example, the Japanese research team analyzed the samples collected from the asteroid probe "Hayabusa2" and collected from the asteroid "Ryugu" and found that the asteroid "Ryugu" is rich in minerals formed after reacting with water, which can be considered that the proto-object that formed Ryugu may contain a lot of water.
At the same time, 23 amino acids were also detected in the asteroid "Ryugu" sample, including amino acid species closely related to life activities. Therefore, this discovery also illustrates the possibility that life on Earth may come from beyond the earth.
However, among more scientific discoveries, it has been found that the chemical composition of most comet water does not match the earth's water, so this "exogenous theory" is still controversial. Then there's what we call the endogenous theory.
Endogenous theory – that is, the existence of water on the earth itself. Because from the theory of the formation of the earth, the earth was originally formed by the fractionation, collapse, and condensation of the original solar nebula gas and dust.
The condensed starlets continue to aggregate embryos that form planets, and then further enlarge the growth to form a primordial Earth. Therefore, at the time of the origin of the earth, the material that formed the earth contained water in it. After that, under the continuous evolution of the earth, the lakes, rivers and so on of the earth were formed.
Of course, in addition to this, there are also theories that the earth itself has no water, just the abundant hydrogen element in the earth's interior, which, over time, reacts with the oxygen in the earth's mantle, and eventually forms water.
The journal Nature once published an article about the earth's water, that is, through the analysis of the mantle inside the earth, meteorites found on the earth, etc., it was found that water appeared on the earth much later than previously expected.
Therefore, it is rebuttal that water is the formation stage of the Earth, which is transformed from the ice layer on the surface of the meteorite. But at the end of the day, there's no certainty about how water comes from. This time, "ancient groundwater" was found on the earth, and it was more inclined to support the situation of "endogenous theory".
Ancient groundwater found in South Africa 1.2 billion years ago
Of course, the discovery of ancient groundwater is actually not very long after 1.2 billion years ago. In 2013, 3 billion years of ancient groundwater was discovered underground in Canada.
This time it was discovered in south Africa in what it is known as the "Moab Khotsong" region, located about 161 km southwest of Johannesburg, in an area of one of the deepest mines in the world, at a depth of about 3 km underground.
Therefore, this time it was not easy to find, and it was hidden in such a deep area underground. And after the discovery, according to the researchers, it was an exciting discovery. This area is completely different from other regions.
In this area, it belongs to the mining area, and the geological characteristics are different. And when the miners drill holes, the water trapped in the rock gushes out — like a balloon that pierces water — and we can catch it.
As can also be seen from the footage taken, the researchers collected it with bottles. The discovery could also shed new light on the chemical interactions of surrounding rocks – for energy production and storage in the Earth's crust.
At the same time, the researchers pointed out that the groundwater found deep underground in the mines in South Africa belongs to ancient groundwater 1.2 billion years ago, and the results have also been published in the journal Nature. However, this water is not the focus, the point is that rare energy substances have been found in it.
Rare helium energy sources have been found in ancient groundwater
Oliver Wall, a research associate from the University of Toronto's Department of Earth Sciences and author of a new study on groundwater discovery, described the location as "Pandora's helium box" in a statement where rare energy substances were found.
This ancient groundwater 1.2 billion years ago in the south is rich in high concentrations of radioactive products – elements produced by radioactivity – suggesting that ancient groundwater sites could one day become an energy source, or change the energy landscape.
After Moab Khotsong collected samples, an international team of researchers found that the water contained characteristics similar to those of extraordinary. In the deep environment, water is preserved in cracks in rocks, and over time, they interact and then decay over millions or even billions of years, producing inert gases.
At the same time, as these rare gases accumulate in the water, the researchers found high-salt components in the samples they collected, and the content is about 8 times that of seawater — and at the same time, a variety of rare substances, including uranium, radioactive helium, neon, argon, krypton and krypton, so this water is really extraordinary.
Hydrogen and helium are "squeezed" in the water, both of which are important energy sources. According to the study, this finding provides the result of a previously "never-before-seen" spread of helium from deeper earth, an important process to consider when we face a persistent helium shortage of energy material, as this may hint at energy production beneath the surfaces of other planets.
Of course, when it comes to helium, we think of helium-3 on the moon, at the science popularization report held by the Shanghai Association for Science and Technology, the mainland pointed out the number of helium-3 on the moon, which is expected to be about 1 million to 5 million tons in the soil of the moon, and this substance is a safe, clean, and cheap energy raw material for controlled nuclear fusion, which can provide for the energy needs of human beings for tens of thousands of years.
So, does this mean that there are many on Earth as well? Of course, it cannot be explained that according to what we know, the Earth has very little helium material, and this time it has not disclosed how much water there is, and if the amount of water rich in rare helium is large, it may change the energy pattern.
So, this time in the ancient groundwater found helium, if this amount of water is very large, can we use this water to decompose? Here we can only say that we have found it. If such water exists in large quantities, it means that it is really possible to extract it and achieve changes in the earth's energy pattern, so we can also look at the subsequent relevant results.