Tag Archives: rocks

Dinosaur Eggshells Aid Paleontologists in Dating Fossil-Rich Rocks

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Researchers from Stellenbosch University and other institutions utilized advanced uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating along with elemental mapping to analyze traces of uranium and lead in the calcite of fossilized dinosaur eggshells discovered in the United States and Mongolia.

An artist’s reconstruction of a troodontid dinosaur that had just hatched from a fragment of an egg shell. Image credit: Eva Utsukiyouhei.

The ages of numerous fossil remains globally remain uncertain.

Without precise geological age data for fossils, paleontologists face challenges in comprehending the relationships among different species and ecosystems over time and across regions.

Traditionally, they depend on dating minerals like zircon and apatite found alongside fossils, but these minerals are not always available.

Efforts to date fossils such as bones and teeth often lead to ambiguous results.

Dr. Ryan Tucker and his team at Stellenbosch University adopted a novel strategy. They applied advanced U-Pb dating and elemental mapping to identify trace quantities of uranium and lead in the calcite of fossilized dinosaur eggshells.

These isotopes function as a natural clock, enabling scientists to ascertain when an egg was buried.

Studies of dinosaur eggs sourced from Utah in the United States and Mongolia’s Gobi Desert have indicated that the eggshells can accurately reflect their ages to about 5% in comparison to the true ages of volcanic ash.

In Mongolia, researchers have for the first time directly dated a significant area where dinosaur eggs and nests have been preserved, tracing back to approximately 75 million years ago.

“Eggshell calcite is remarkably adaptable,” states Dr. Tucker.

“This introduces a fresh method for dating fossil sites lacking volcanic layers, which has posed a challenge for paleontology for many years.”

By demonstrating that dinosaur eggshells can reliably record geological time, this research bridges biology and earth sciences, providing scientists with a powerful tool for dating fossil remains worldwide.

“Directly dating fossils is a dream for paleontologists,” remarked Dr. Lindsay Zanno, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

“With this innovative technology, we can tackle previously insurmountable riddles of dinosaur evolution.”

The team’s study was published in the journal Communication Earth and Environment.

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RT Tucker et al. 2025. U-Pb calcite dating of fossil eggshells as an accurate deep-earth chronometer. Communication Earth and Environment 6,872; doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02895-w

Source: www.sci.news

Strata Review: Unveiling the Captivating Narratives in Earth’s “Boring” Layered Rocks

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Rock layers reveal insights into our planet’s deep past, such as these in Canada

Paul Andreassen/Alamy

hierarchy
Laura Poppick (WW Norton)

The narrative of Earth is one of transformation. Over 4.5 billion years, our planet has evolved from a scorching mass of molten rock and poisonous gases into a temperate and vibrant habitat teeming with diverse life forms. This evolution was punctuated by pauses, restarts, and cataclysmic events, as the intricate biogeochemical processes shaped the most extraordinary phases in Earth’s history.

Our understanding of this vast tale is largely thanks to rocks. They preserve the chronology of events that contributed to the surface’s stratification through various deposits. This intricate ordering is understood through hierarchies, and the scientific discipline dedicated to interpreting them is known as stratigraphy.

In Strata: A Story from Deep Time, journalist Laura Poppick delves into this nuanced science of rock interpretation, offering insights on how planets respond to and recover from periods of upheaval. “Through these layers, we glimpse ancient versions of our planet, gaining contextual awareness as we traverse through the present,” she observes.

Poppick highlights several transformative periods in Earth’s history, selecting four key episodes. The first examines the development of oxygen-rich atmospheres, tracking the evolution of photosynthesizing microorganisms and significant oxidative events that led to mass extinctions around 2.4 billion years ago.

The second segment discusses “Snowball Earth,” a period approximately 720 million years ago when many regions are believed to have frozen over. Following this, she explores the advent of mud and the subsequent rise of vegetation. Finally, the Mesozoic era, dominated by dinosaurs, records atmospheric carbon dioxide levels much higher than today’s due to volcanic activity, offering a framework to understand planetary responses to climate shifts.

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Sedimentary rocks maintain a distinct layer system that clearly records the events that have shaped our planet’s surface.
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Throughout each episode, Poppick introduces geologists working to unravel the numerous unanswered questions regarding the timing and causes of these changes. She visits significant geological sites, from Newfoundland to the Australian Outback, where one can observe the strata that articulate these narratives.

The recurring theme emphasizes the importance of paying attention to rocks. To an untrained observer, they may appear ordinary; however, Poppick reminds us that “a trained eye discerns physical and chemical indicators—proxies—that reveal the characteristics of our planet during the formation of these rocks.” She underscores the value of geologists’ expertise.

This book is a remarkable attempt to make stratigraphy engaging. At times, it falters, and Poppick’s fragmented writing style led me to lose the thread of the narrative.

Her comparisons of geological transformations to human-centric changes sometimes felt uneasy. For instance, she likens the Mesozoic greenhouse climate to modern carbon emissions, though the historical era’s temperatures were so extreme that such analogies may be misleading, even at optimistic emission projections.

Another limitation lies in the currently incomplete nature of geoscience. Some of the pivotal questions raised by Poppick—including the true cause of Snowball Earth—remain unresolved or are subject to debate among different factions. By the end, I was left with a sense of uncertainty about what can be definitively stated. Yet, that unpredictability might be intrinsic to geology itself. “Nothing is immutable in stone as our understanding of geology continues to evolve, just like the rocks,” Poppick states.

Nevertheless, the book effectively captures the grandeur of the story embedded in rocks. It does so particularly well by showing how seemingly mundane observations about rocks can lead directly to profound insights into Earth’s history. Such revelations illuminate the stratigraphic process as Poppick examines overlooked outcrops, encouraging us to perceive the rocks in our surroundings with renewed appreciation.

“Hierarchies are, in many ways, love letters from a maturing Earth,” she argues. This book abundantly reveals the reasons to uncover the secrets they hold.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

How Hot Spring Rocks Could Lead to Discovering Life on Mars – Demon

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What if the secrets to discovering life on Mars lie hidden in our own environment? In the planet’s most extreme habitats, microbial life flourishes in unlikely places—from icy tundras to searing, acidic springs. These unique ecosystems not only support life but also preserve evidence of it. Among these, hot springs are particularly notable for generating distinctive silica-rich formations.Silica Center is capable of trapping remnants of ancient microbes.

Silica occurs when silica-laden water from hot springs rises, cools, and evaporates, leaving behind hardened silica that can encapsulate microorganisms, thus fossilizing them. NASA’s Spirit Rover discovered similar silica sinter in Gusev Crater on Mars, raising questions about whether these ancient Martian hot springs may also preserve signs of past life.

An international research team has revealed that fat-like molecules from cells, lipids, can endure alongside these silica sinters and might be detected using equipment akin to that on Martian rovers. These lipids can persist for millions of years and serve as chemical fossils, or biomarkers in the fossil record. They provide insights into the types of life that once existed in these environments, aiding scientists in reconstructing ancient ecosystems.

Researchers collected silica sintered samples from six hot springs in New Zealand’s Taupo volcanic region, where the waters range from 77°F to 203°F (25°C to 95°C) and vary in acidity. First, they extracted the lipids from the sintered material chemically. Next, they characterized these lipids using instruments that fragment the molecules into smaller components, identifying them by mass.Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was utilized.

The team employed GC-MS to identify a broad array of lipid molecules, including fatty acids, alcohols, sterols, and n-alkanes from the sinter. Most of these molecules likely originated from bacteria that either use sunlight or sulfate as an energy source, and such microorganisms are well-suited for extreme environments. Some lipids identified also stemmed from other sources, like algae and plants. The researchers interpreted this diversity of lipids as indicative of both ancient and contemporary microorganisms. They referred to the old fossilized communities preserved with newer ones in the silica, noting the mix of heat-altered and fresh compounds.

The shape and texture of sintered rocks were also found to influence the preservation of lipid biomarkers. A fine, pointed texture known as spicular sinter retained more lipids compared to knobbed or crusty types. These thorny textures form at the edges of hot spring pools where microorganisms interact with rapidly cooled silica-rich water, creating delicate silica structures that grow like small fingers. Researchers suggested that these fine textures offer protection to microorganisms against erosion and radiation. They believe these finger-like silica formations are particularly promising for detecting traces of past life on Mars, similar to those seen by the Spirit Rover.

To evaluate whether current Rover instruments could detect ancient lipids, researchers analyzed two silica sintered samples using techniques similar to those used by rovers.NASA’s Curiosity Rover employs a method called Pyrolysis-GC-MS, which does not require prior chemical extraction of lipids. The entire sample is heated until the molecules transform into gas, which is then analyzed.

In one sintered sample, the instrument successfully identified simple lipids commonly produced by organisms, such as n-alkanes, pristanes, and phytanes. In another sulfur-rich sample, it detected a sulfur-based compound known as thiophene, also found on Mars. However, the analysis did not reveal more complex biomarkers like hopane and sterols, likely because they were degraded by heat. Pyrolysis may result in quantities too small for GC-MS to detect.

Based on these findings, researchers concluded that current rover instruments can successfully detect simple and durable lipids but may overlook more delicate or complex ones. To enhance the likelihood of finding ancient biosignatures, the team recommended that future Mars missions adopt less destructive detection approaches. Despite these challenges, they suggested that silica-rich rocks, like those in the Gusev Crater, are prime targets for exploring evidence of ancient Martian life. By pinpointing the most suitable rock textures for lipid preservation that can be detected with existing rover technologies, scientists are one step closer to uncovering signs of life on Mars.


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Source: sciworthy.com

Curiosity Discovers Coral-Like Rocks on Mars

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On July 24, 2025, with 4,608 Mars Days, or Sols, into the mission, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured a stunning image of a wind-shaped rock resembling coral formations in Gale Crater on Mars.

This image of Papsolok was captured on July 24, 2025, by Curiosity’s Mahli instrument. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

One of the rocks shaped by the wind was photographed by Curiosity’s Mars Hand Lens Imager (Mahli), which is located on the end of the rover’s robotic arm.

“At the time this image was taken, it was known as Paposo, and the rock was roughly 5 cm (2 inches) from the Mahli,” a member of the Curiosity team stated.

On the same day, Curiosity observed another coral-like rock through a remote microimager, which is part of the ChemCam instrument.

This image of the wind-shaped rock was captured by Curiosity’s remote microimager on July 24, 2025. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

“Curiosity has identified many small features like these, which originated billions of years ago when liquid water existed on Mars,” the researchers noted.

“Minerals dissolved in water permeated the rock’s cracks, eventually drying and leaving behind hardened minerals.”

“Over years of wind erosion, surrounding rocks have been worn down, resulting in these distinctive shapes.”

“This natural process is commonly observed on Earth and also results in fascinating rock forms on Mars, including those that resemble flowers.”

Curiosity Rover took this selfie on October 11, 2019, at Glen Etive, where it drilled twice. Just to the left of the rover are two drill holes labeled Glen Etive 1 (right) and Glen Etive 2 (left). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Launched on November 26, 2011, Curiosity is the fourth rover the United States has dispatched to Mars.

The mission, overseen by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, involves nearly 500 scientists from the US and around the world.

Curiosity is exploring a 154 km (96 miles) wide crater and collecting rock, soil, and air samples for analysis.

The car-sized rover, comparable in height to a basketball player, utilizes its 2.1 m (7 feet) long arms to place tools near selected rocks for research.

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient Rocks Reveal the First Signs of Earth’s Structural Activity

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The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia features rocks that date back 3.5 billion years.

Elizabeth Czitronyi / Alamy

Rocks from Australia reveal that tectonic plates were shifting as far back as 3.5 billion years ago, a breakthrough that alters our understanding of the onset of plate tectonics over subsequent hundreds of millions of years.

Currently, along with roughly eight major hard rock plates on Earth’s surface, several smaller plates are interacting with the softer rock layer beneath. When these plates’ edges grind against one another, it can lead to sudden geological upheavals, such as earthquakes, and gradual processes like mountain range formation.

However, there is disagreement among geologists regarding the configurations of these ancient plates and their movements. Some researchers claim to have found indications of tectonic activity as far back as 4 billion years ago when the planet was significantly hotter; others argue that more compelling evidence is noted after 3.2 billion years ago.

Much of this data derives from the chemical compositions of rocks, which suggest past movements. Despite this, records detailing the interactions of early plates remain scarce, which is regarded as critical evidence supporting plate tectonics.

Recently, Alec Brenner and his team from Yale University claim to have uncovered substantial evidence of relative plate movement dating back 3.5 billion years in the eastern Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. They traced the magnetic orientation of rocks aligned with Earth’s magnetic field, observing shifts similar to how a compass needle changes direction when the ground moves.

Brenner and colleagues initially dated the rock using radioisotope analysis, establishing that at certain times, the rock’s magnetism remained unchanged. By observing this magnetization shift, they demonstrated that the rock mass progressively moved at a rate of several centimeters each year. They compared these findings to similarly examined rocks in the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa, which exhibited no such movement.

“This suggests that some type of plate boundary must exist between these two regions to accommodate that relative movement,” remarked Brenner during his presentation at the Goldschmidt Geochemical Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, on July 9.

“Approximately 3.8 billion years ago, the Pilbara plate transitioned from medium to high latitudes, eventually reaching proximity to Earth’s magnetic poles and, possibly millions of years later, to the latitude of Svalbard.”

“If two plates are moving relative to one another, there must be various dynamic interactions happening between them,” noted Robert Hazen from the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington, DC. “It cannot be an isolated event.”

Nonetheless, multiple interpretations exist regarding the underlying causes of this movement, according to Hazen. The variability in plate movement rates adds to the confusion, and existing data could align with various theories regarding Earth’s interior structure at that time.

At the very least, this discovery indicates the presence of structural boundaries, according to Michael Brown from the University of Maryland. However, he argues that the nature of rock movement appears dissimilar to contemporary understanding of plate tectonics. “Essentially, the Pilbara plate moved to higher latitudes to prevent stagnation, which is atypical within any current plate structural model.”

Brown posits that this aligns with the theory suggesting the Earth’s crust consisted of numerous smaller plates propelled by a thermal mantle plume during that period. He believes the remnants of these small plates examined by Brenner and his team provide evidence of movement; however, due to their limited representation of the crust, they may not accurately reflect broader Earth movements.

Brenner’s team also discovered indications that the Earth’s magnetic field underwent reversals around 3.46 billion years ago. Unlike today’s magnetic field reversals, which occur every million years, these ancient magnetic shifts seemed to happen much more frequently, over spans of tens of millions of years. This could imply a fundamentally different set of energies and mechanisms at play, as noted by Brenner.

Hazen emphasized that the scarcity of magnetic data leads to ongoing debates about the state of Earth’s magnetic field during that era of its evolution. “I believe this discovery raises the bar significantly,” he asserts. “It represents a vital breakthrough in understanding early magnetic reversals, shedding light on the core’s geomechanics in ways previously unexplored.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

These Rocks May Be the Final Remnants of Earth’s Early Crust

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Canadian Nuvvuagittuq Green Stone Belt may contain the world’s oldest rock

Jonathan O’Neill

About four billion years ago, magma from Earth’s mantle intruded the primitive crust of a nascent planet. Over the next period, nearly all of the planet’s early crust melted back into the mantle, leaving behind a small remnant near the site of this intrusion that still exists today.

This remnant is part of the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt along Hudson Bay’s coast in Canada. Recent analyses of the rock’s radioisotope signatures have sparked debates among geologists about whether it is indeed the oldest rock on Earth or simply very ancient.

In a study published in 2008, Jonathan O’Neill from the University of Ottawa and his team posited that the surrounding rocks could be as old as 4.3 billion years, dating back to the Hadean eon—just a few hundred million years after Earth’s formation.

While there have been discoveries of older mineral grains, these ancient Hadean rocks provide critical insights into Earth’s formative years, possibly shedding light on geological enigmas like the onset of plate tectonics and early ocean compositions.

The method used for dating the rocks has drawn controversy, particularly regarding the claimed age of 4.3 billion years. Traditionally, old rocks are dated utilizing a robust mineral known as zircon, but these volcanic rocks lack zircon. “No one can date these rocks using the popular techniques,” O’Neill remarks.

Instead, researchers analyzed the isotopes of neodymium and samarium within the rock. As samarium decays, it generates different isotopes of neodymium at predictable rates, allowing the ratio of isotopes to serve as a “clock” marking the time since the rock crystallized from magma. Interestingly, two isotopes of samarium can decay at differing rates, acting as two parallel chronometers. Disagreement arose among researchers about whether the rock was genuinely Hadean, as the two clocks provided inconsistent age estimates.

“I’m not convinced that most of the early Earth research community agrees,” states Richard Walker at the University of Maryland.

Currently, O’Neill’s team is assessing the neodymium and samarium isotopes in the rock formations dating back 4.3 billion years. By definition, such intrusions are younger than the surrounding rock layers, implying that dating an intrusion yields the minimum age for the enclosing rocks.

Detailed view of the Canada Nuvvuagittuq Green Stone Belt

David Hutt/Alamy

In the findings, the two chronological indicators tell the same tale, indicating the rocks’ age to be approximately 4.16 billion years. “Both clocks yield identical results,” O’Neill states. This consistency bolsters the theory that the surrounding rocks were indeed solidified during the Hadean eon, making them potentially the only known remnants of Earth’s ancient crust.

“I believe they present the strongest argument possible,” asserts Graham Pierson from the University of Alberta, Canada.

“The simplest interpretation of this data is that these represent the oldest rocks on Earth,” says Jesse Reimink at Pennsylvania State University. Nevertheless, he cautions that this may not be the final word on the subject, stating, “When it comes to the oldest rocks and minerals, absolute certainty is hard to come by.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Chinese Researchers Discover That Moon Rocks Indicate the Possibility of Water on the Moon

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The other side of the moon – the part that is always far from the earth – is strangely different from close. It is pockmarked with more craters, with a thicker crust and less Maria, where lava was once formed, or with fewer plains.

Now, scientists say the difference can be more than the depth of the skin.

Using samples from the moon obtained last year, Chinese researchers believe the inside of the moon is potentially drier than its near it. Their discovery, Published Wednesday’s Nature Journal will provide a clearer picture of how pearly orbs we admire in the night sky have formed and evolved over billions of years.

The difference in moisture in the distant side of the moon and its nearby appears to be “accidentally consistent” with variations in the surface features of the two hemispheres of the moon, said Senfu, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and author of the new results. “It’s very interesting,” he said.

Until the 1990s, when scientists began to discover tips on water on its surface, the moon was believed to be “dry bones.” These tips were confirmed in 2009 when NASA denounced the rocket stage to the moon’s Antarctic.

One of the goals, including this mission, was to estimate the amount of water that lies deep within the moon. The interior of the moon is not changed much by the process of weathering the surface.

Returning to Earth with a Chang’e-6 sample in hand, researchers looked for hardened particles of lava erupted from the female entrance or within the lunar mantle. Some of these basalts were 2.8 billion years old, and contained olivine, a crystal that had ancient magma cooled in the moon and stored information about the composition of the mantle early in the history of the moon.

The amount of hydrogen trapped in olivine allowed scientists to estimate the amount of water present in the mantle at the time. 1-1.5 grams of water for every million grams of the moon rock.

Previous measurements from samples collected near the moon – the US, the Soviet Union, and most recently 200 times wet.

The harsh difference between the range of nearby lunar ranges between nearby and far side samples could suggest that the parts of the moon that we don’t see on Earth are generally much drier, Dr. Hu said.

Shuai Li, a planetary geologist at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, who studies water on the moon, described the results as “very interesting.” However, he pointed out that limited information can be extracted from a single sample.

“It’s hard to say if the far side is definitely dryer than the nearest side,” said Dr. Lee, who was not involved in the job.

One scenario the Chang’e-6 team proposed to explain the internal differences is that the impact of creating the Antarctic-Aitken basin is strong enough to throw water and other elements near the moon, depleting the amount of water beyond.

Another idea is that the basalt in the Chang’e-6 sample comes from a much deeper, dry part of the lunar mantle.

“For me, that’s a little more realistic,” said Mahesh Anand, a planetary scientist at the UK Open University. Estimate the moisture content inside the moon From near-side samples from China collected by the Chang’e-5 mission in 2020.

Dr. Anand also praised the researchers’ careful selection of hundreds of particles from Chang’e-6 samples, less than 16 inches in size, to estimate water abundance.

“The ability to do that is extremely laborious and requires a lot of sophisticated and careful work,” he said.

More samples from various locations collected by future moon missions will help scientists determine whether the inner interior of the width is uniformly dry, and whether it changes throughout the hemisphere.

Source: www.nytimes.com

Chemistry expertise speeds up rocks’ ability to absorb CO2

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Olivine rock naturally reacts with carbon dioxide, but it’s a slow business

Renhour48 via Wikimedia/CC0 1.0 Universal

The new process will allow crushed rocks to capture carbon dioxide more quickly from the air by turbocharged with already widely adopted carbon removal techniques.

Natural silicate minerals such as basalt react with water and CO2 to form solid carbonic acid materials, a process known as reinforced lock weathering (ERW). Research suggests Spreading crushed silicate rocks on farmland increases the amount of carbon the soil can absorb, while improving farmer crop yields.

but Matthew Canan Stanford University in California believes that the carbon advantage of ERW is exaggerated as natural silicates do not reach the climate quickly enough to extract large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere. “The data is very clear. They don’t weather at a useful speed,” he says.

Conversion of silicates into more reactive minerals increases weathering rates and makes ERW a viable climate solution, he says. Canaan and his colleagues Yuxuan Chen Stanford University also developed a method for producing magnesium oxide and calcium silicate using a process inspired by cement production.

“When you take calcium sources and magnesium silicate and heat it, you can make calcium silicate and magnesium oxide,” says Canaan. “The core reaction is what is called ion exchange, and it exchanges magnesium for calcium.”

“The reason it’s strong is because calcium silicate is reactive and so is magnesium oxide,” he says. “I put one reactive thing in and two come out.” The ingredients get the weather thousands of times faster than standard silicates, says Canaan.

The ki used in this process must be heated to 1400°C for the reaction, and energy may be provided by natural gas. This means that this method generates significant carbon emissions, but Canaan can capture these at sources or use several reactive minerals to capture the emissions at the site. It suggests that booking can offset it.

When the emissions associated with material production are taken into consideration, one ton of reactive material removes about one ton of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Researchers can now create 15 kilograms of reactive rocks per day, but they hope to turn the idea into a commercial venture by selling the materials to farmers for use on farmland.

Rachel James The University of Southampton, UK, challenges Canaan’s claim that traditional ERWs do not work, pointing to many documented examples of intensified weathering tests. However, she welcomes attempts to accelerate the weathering rate of silicate.

“The climate crisis now requires action, so what you can do to speed up weathering rates is extremely beneficial,” she says. “Weathering is essentially a slow process and frankly, we want to see meaningful carbon dioxide removal on a timescale of 10 years or more than 50 years.”

However, she warns that the team is likely to face problems with expanding production and deployment. She says that using minerals in agricultural systems does not guarantee that all captured carbon is permanently trapped.

Phil Renforth At Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, the proposal is said to be a smart idea, but it takes more research to understand how it should be unfolded. “They essentially produce cement minerals, which may not be an ideal candidate mineral in addition to agricultural soils,” he says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Living microorganisms found in ancient 2 billion-year-old rocks by microbiologists

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Researchers from the University of Tokyo and others have discovered pockets of living microorganisms in mineral-filled veins in 2 billion-year-old rocks taken from South Africa’s Bushveld Igneous Complex.

The 2-billion-year-old mafic rocks of the Bushveld Igneous Complex reveal veins filled with clay minerals colonized by indigenous microorganisms (stained green). Image provided by: Suzuki others., doi: 10.1007/s00248-024-02434-8.

“We didn’t know whether rocks from 2 billion years ago were habitable or not,” says Dr. Yohei Suzuki, a researcher at the University of Tokyo.

“This is a very interesting discovery because the oldest geological formations in which living microorganisms have been found were 100 million-year-old deposits beneath the ocean floor.”

“By studying the DNA and genomes of these microorganisms, we may be able to understand the evolution of very early life on Earth.”

Dr. Suzuki and his colleagues analyzed rock samples from the Bushveld Igneous Complex, a rock intrusion in northeastern South Africa that formed when magma slowly cooled beneath the earth’s surface.

“The Bushveld Igneous Complex covers an area of approximately 66,000 km2 (about the same size as Ireland), varies in thickness by up to 9 km, and contains approximately 70% of the platinum mined worldwide. , contains some of the richest mineral deposits on Earth,” they said.

“Due to the way it was formed and the minimal deformation and changes that have occurred since then, the BIC is thought to have provided a stable habitat for ancient microbial life that continues to this day.”

The core sample, measuring 8.5 cm in diameter and 30 cm in length, was taken from a depth of 15.28 meters with the assistance of the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, a non-profit organization that funds exploration of geological sites.

By analyzing thin slices of the rock, the researchers found that the cracks in the rock were packed with live microbial cells.

The crevices near these cracks were clogged with clay, making it impossible for living things to get out of them or for anything else to get in.

The researchers built on previously developed techniques to ensure that the microbes were native to the rock samples and not due to contamination during the drilling or testing process.

By staining the DNA of microbial cells and using infrared spectroscopy to observe proteins in the microbes and the surrounding clay, they confirmed that the microbes were alive and uncontaminated.

“I am very interested in the possibility that subsurface microorganisms exist not only on Earth, but also on other planets,” said Dr. Suzuki.

“Rocks on Mars are generally much older (20 billion to 30 billion years ago), but NASA’s Perseverance rover is currently scheduled to return rocks that are similar in age to the rocks used in this study.”

“Now that we have discovered microbial life in a 2 billion-year-old Earth sample and have been able to accurately confirm its authenticity, we are excited to see what we will find in Mars samples in the future.”

of result Published in a magazine microbial ecology.

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Yuya Suzuki others. 2024. Subsurface microbial colonization of mineral-filled veins in 2 billion-year-old mafic rocks of the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa. microorganism ecole 87, 116; doi: 10.1007/s00248-024-02434-8

This article is based on a press release from the University of Tokyo.

Source: www.sci.news

Ancient life signs found in rocks by Mars rover

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The leopard-spot-like features in the center of the image may be a sign of ancient life.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA's Perseverance rover has discovered a rock speckled with what appear to be traces of ancient life. Named Cheyaba Falls after a famous waterfall in Arizona, the rock suggests that microbial life may have existed there billions of years ago, but there's currently no certainty that life ever existed there.

The rock, about 1 meter by 0.6 meters in size, is mostly reddish with thin veins of white calcium sulfate that were likely formed when water flowed through cracks in the rock, depositing minerals in the cracks. Water is one of the elements necessary for life, but water is not the only thing researchers found as they sifted through the Perseverance data.

They found that among the white stripes were strange light-colored spots just a few millimeters in diameter, surrounded by a dark material containing iron and phosphate. “These spots were a big surprise,” they said. David Flannery NASA's Queensland University of Technology in Australia press release“On Earth, these rock features are often associated with the fossil record of microorganisms living below the Earth's surface,” because the chemical reactions that produce these leopard-print patterns in Earth's rocks can also provide useful energy for microorganisms.

In the same area where the rocks are, Perseverance also detected certain organic compounds that are considered building blocks of life. Taken together, all of this could be considered a trace of past microbial life on Mars, but it's far from conclusive proof. “We should be cautiously enthusiastic, but realistically cautious,” Perseverance said. Pole Barn “Right now, this is a sign that wet rocks are (probably) causing chemical changes,” said John Doe, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, who was not involved in the study.

As it turns out, there are ways to produce all these signatures without the involvement of any living organisms, and there are some indications that the region may have once been filled with hot magma, which may have made it impossible for life to survive there.

Unfortunately, it won't be clear anytime soon whether there are signs of life at Cheyaba Falls. “We've shone lasers and X-rays on the rocks, and literally photographed them day and night, from just about every angle you can imagine,” says Dr. Ken Farley “Scientifically, Perseverance has nothing more to offer,” Caltech said in a press release.

The rover is adding samples from Cheyaba Falls to its archives, and a future mission will bring them back to Earth, where researchers will be able to study them more closely with more advanced instruments. “There's a whole different way to analyze them than you would in a lab on Earth,” Byrne says.

But NASA's Mars sample-return mission, Perseverance, has suffered a series of setbacks over the past year, and it's still not clear when or if we'll be able to get an up-close look at the intriguing rocks.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The Chang’e-6 probe from China successfully returns with the first samples of rocks from the far side of the moon

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The Chang’e-6 probe is recovered in Xiziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia, China.

Xinhua/Shutterstock

China’s Chang’e-6 spacecraft has returned to Earth, bringing back the first chunk of space rock from the far side of the moon.

The capsule separated from the orbital container at around 1:20 p.m. local time, 5,000 kilometers above the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in Xiziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, China on June 25.

The sample, which should contain about 2 kilograms of lunar material, descended the final 10 kilometres by parachute, landing at 2:07pm and being retrieved by scientists from the China National Space Administration.

Landing on the far side of the moon is difficult because it always faces away from Earth and there is no direct communication line, and this area’s surface remained unexplored until a Chinese spacecraft landed there earlier this month.

The landing and recovery operations relied heavily on autonomous processes and robotic tools, but Chinese engineers were able to send messages to the spacecraft through the Queqiao-2 relay satellite, which was launched in March this year and is still orbiting the moon.

The samples include surface and two meters of material scooped up by Chang’e-6 drilling into its landing site in Apollo Crater, which is within the larger South Pole-Aitken Basin. Scientists hope that this material will help explain how and when these basins formed, and may enable understanding of the origins of other similar lunar craters.

The rocks may indicate the amount of water ice in the region, which could be a key resource for a manned mission that China hopes to send to the moon by 2030.

Before embarking on its crewed mission, China plans to send two more spacecraft, Chang’e-7 and Chang’e-8, to the lunar south pole to gather information on a potential site for a base to be called the International Lunar Research Station. China is leading the mission in collaboration with Russian space agency Roscosmos.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Madigen: Potential for Central Asia’s First UNESCO Geopark with these Incredible Rocks

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The Madigen Formation is one of the richest Triassic fossil beds in the world, but few people have ever heard of it.

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About 235 million years ago, in what is now Central Asia, a small reptile fell into a freshwater lake and settled in the soft mud at the bottom.Creatures – named longiskamaIt means “long scales” after the strange feather-like protrusions on its back. It probably lived in the nearby forest, along with many other interesting animals, including a flying reptile known as a flying reptile. Chalovipteryx and Giga Titana giant praying mantis-like insect.

as longiskama's body slowly rotted, gradually turning to stone, continents drifted away, lakes dried up and reformed again and again, and the landscape above changed. Later, in the 1960s, Soviet paleontologist Alexander Sharov discovered reptile fossils. scientifically spotlighted In this little-known corner of the Soviet Union.

Today, the region is located in southern Kyrgyzstan and is a dusty landscape of colorful rock outcrops and dry riverbeds, surrounded by the snow-capped peaks of the Turkestan Mountains. These rocks are the remains of layers of mud and silt that were deposited on the lake bed. longiskama This formation is called the Madigen Formation after a nearby village.Paleontologists recognize it as One of the richest Triassic fossil beds in the world and Lagerstätte –’s site A beautifully preserved specimen – But few others have heard of Madygen.

That's about to change. If all plans go well, this year the region will become the world's first global geopark.

Source: www.newscientist.com

The Origins of Life: Key Chemical Reactions May Have Begun in Hot, Cracked Rocks

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Some amino acids can become concentrated when traveling through cracks in hot rocks.

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Chemical reactions key to the origin of life on Earth may have occurred as molecules moved along a temperature gradient within a network of cracks in thin rocks deep underground.

Such networks are thought to have been common on early Earth and may have provided a kind of natural laboratory in which many of the building blocks of life were concentrated and separated from other organic molecules.

“It’s very difficult to get a more general environment where you can do these cleansing and intermediate steps,” he says. Christophe Mast at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany.

He and his colleagues created a heat flow chamber the size of a playing card to model how mixtures of organic molecules behave in cracks in such rocks.

The researchers heated one side of the 170-micrometer-thick chamber to 25°C (77°F) and the other side to 40°C (104°F), allowing molecules to move in a process called thermophoresis. This created a temperature gradient that How sensitive a molecule is to this process depends on its size and charge and how it interacts with the fluid in which it is dissolved.

During an 18-hour experiment in a heat flow chamber, we found that different molecules were concentrated in different parts of the chamber depending on their sensitivity to thermophoresis. Among these molecules are many amino acids and A, T, G, and C nucleobases, which are important building blocks of DNA. This effect was further magnified by creating a network of three interconnected chambers, with one side of the chamber network at 25°C and the other side at 40°C. Additional chambers further concentrated the compounds concentrated in the first chamber.

Mathematical simulations with 20 interconnected chambers (which may closely resemble the complexity of natural crack systems) find that the enrichment of different molecules can be further amplified Did. In one chamber, the amino acid glycine reached a concentration approximately 3000 times higher than that of another amino acid, isoleucine, even though they entered the network at the same concentration.

The researchers also demonstrated that this enrichment process can cause reactions that would otherwise be extremely difficult. They showed that glycine molecules can bind to each other when the concentration of a molecule that catalyzes the reaction called trimetaphosphoric acid (TMP) increases. Mast said TMP is an interesting molecule to concentrate because it was rare on early Earth. “Since [the chambers] Since they are all randomly connected, all kinds of reaction conditions can be implemented. ”

“It’s very interesting that within the crack there are regions with different proportions of compounds,” he says. evan sprite from Radboud University in the Netherlands was not involved in the study. “This enhancement allows us to create even more versatility from very simple building blocks.”

But enrichment in rock fractures is still far from a viable scenario for the origin of life, he says. “Ultimately, they still need to come together to form something resembling a cell or protocell.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com