Water Isolated for Over a Billion Years Found Under Ontario

ananyo writes "Scientists working 2.4 kilometers below Earth's surface in a Canadian mine have tapped a source of water that has remained isolated for at least a billion years. The researchers say they do not yet know whether anything has been living in it all this time, but the water contains high levels of methane and hydrogen — the right stuff to support life. Micrometer-scale pockets in minerals billions of years old can hold water that was trapped during the minerals' formation. But no source of free-flowing water passing through interconnected cracks or pores in Earth's crust has previously been shown to have stayed isolated for more than tens of millions of years (paper abstract)."

It is time

[Sparticus789]

If you need me, I will be in my hermetically sealed Doomsday Bunker, just in case a vicious and contagious disease emerges.

3. Profit

[Bosconian]

Bottle it.
Then sell it at $50 a pop with dubious claims about health benefits.

"Billioneia Aquifer" - You can taste the years.

Nice try....

[krovisser]

Where they there to see it trapped? Then how do they know!?

In related news:

[Anonymous Coward]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is said to have been disappointed with the find, but he is confident that continued efforts will eventually locate valuable stores of oil and coal ...

Re:Nice try....

[Buggz]

I still have to wait four minutes before I get to drink my freshly made coffee. Maybe it'll make the whoosh hurt less than the facepalm. :/

Re:Ontario - Canada's fat, lazy province

[StrangeBrew]

Alberta isn't 'digging' for oil. We are slowly separating British Columbia from the mainland. This will accomplish two things: 1) Provide Alberta with it's own seaports. 2) Ensure those B.C. hippies are physically isolated from the rest of the country.

Silurian reservoir

[The Grim Reefer]

The Silurians are going to be pissed.

The Andromeda, Strains Logic

[neoshroom]

Generally parasites co-evolve with their hosts. Because of this, it is actually fairly unlikely to unearth some vicious ancient virus from waters a billion years old. Billions of years ago all that existed was bacteria [imgur.com] and the oldest viruses [telegraph.co.uk] we know about go back only hundreds of millions of years. [livescience.com]

That said I fully endorse your Hermetic [wikipedia.org] seal [wikipedia.org] and wish you well in your initiating our flippered friends into the alchemic ways.

Re:It is time

[ArcadeMan]

...the LHC makes black holes. - Samantha Wright

Re:3. Profit

[EGenius007]

Pfft, you obviously need to sell the homeopathic version that's been diluted 10,000x to be even more effective.

Still fizzy

[Smivs]

This is amazing. 1 billion year old mineral water and it's still fizzy!

Re:It is time

[kryliss]

That's a bunch of crap, that water can't be any older than 6,000 years old!!!

Re:It is time

[Samantha Wright]

You are dead to me, ArcadeMan. Dead to me.

But does it...

[Nidi62]

mix well with Scotch?

You probably thought I was going to ask if it ran Linux, didn't you?