The Rock Formation of Northwestern Ontario Helps Scientists Study "The Old Atmosphere"

A rare rock formation, located about 100 kilometers east of Thunder Bay, in Ontario, has helped an international group of researchers "sample the ancient atmosphere" to determine the abundance of living things existing on Earth a billion years ago, compared to the time current.

Scientists have examined the ratio of oxygen isotopes trapped in a mineral called gypsum, which is a key. Philip Fralick, a geology professor from Lakehead University, who was part of the collaborative effort, said, "This is one of the oldest deposits of gypsum on Earth. he said, describing the red rock cliffs, near the communities of Dorion and Nipigon.

& # 39; Back to the beginning of the earth itself & # 39;

"It's 1.4 billion years old, a third of the beginning of the Earth itself, there was then only a very, very primitive life, there were Meme it bacteria, there were some unicellular metazoans and there were maybe worms, but that was pretty much everything. "

" If you take a bucket of seawater and as you put it on your stove, after about two-thirds of the water has evaporated, gypsum crystals will begin to form, "he said. oxygen, gypsum can provide scientists with insight into the atmospheric conditions present during its creation.

"Much, much, much less life on Earth at the time"

Oxygen is a key component of almost all living things, plants produce it during photosynthesis, animals need it to breathe and burn calories.

Measuring the change in oxygen levels collected in the atmosphere today and over a billion years ago means that scientists "can say they are safe. there was more plant life or less plant life "

. , a lot, a lot less life on Earth at the time, "he said.The discovery itself is not surprising, but what is" revolutionary "is the new technique developed by this international research project, says Fralick.

He hopes the procedure will be used in future studies to show the evolution of plant and animal life

Here we can hear the full interview of the Professor Fralick on the film Superior Morning of the CBC

The study was published on Nature.com .