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Fresh water on Earth emerged 500M years earlier than previously thought
New Curtin-led research has found evidence that fresh water on Earth, which is essential for life, appeared about four billion years ago - five hundred mill ...
Lead author Dr Hamed Gamaleldien, Adjunct Research Fellow in Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences and an Assistant Professor at Khalifa University, UAE, said by analysing ancient crystals from the Jack Hills in Western Australia’s Mid West region, researchers have pushed back the timeline for the emergence of fresh water to just a few hundred million years after the planet’s formation. “We were able to date the origins of the hydrological cycle, which is the continuous process through which water moves around Earth and is crucial for sustaining ecosystems and supporting life on our planet,” Dr Gamaleldien said. “This discovery not only sheds light on Earth’s early history but also suggests landmasses and fresh water set the stage for life to flourish within a relatively short time frame – less than 600 million years after the planet formed,” Dr Olierook said.
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