Earth Was A Ball Of Water 3.2 Billion Years Ago!!

Earth is a strange planet. Till this date, it is the only world known to have liquid water on the surface. The present day, 71% of the Earth surface is covered by water. Which made many scientists and researchers think that it may have been a barren land early in its formation. Water would have then appeared through asteroids, comets and evaporation of early water present below the surface.  The first clouds then poured the very first raindrops and shaped our planet ever since.....

But, this came out of the blue, a team of researchers were investigating rock samples of the past and found something very surprising. In order to study how our planet was billions of years ago, team of researchers lead by Benjamin Johnson studied a 3.2 billion years old ocean crust which was turned onto its side in the deep north-western part of Australia called the Panorama district. It also contained hydrothermal vents through which once seawater use to bubble through ocean-floor! 

"There are no samples of really ancient ocean water lying around, but we do have rocks that interacted with seawater and remembered that interaction." Lead author Benjamin Johnson, assistant professor at Iowa State University, said in a statement.

The team collected over 100 rock samples and were particularly looking for the type of trapped oxygen in the rocks. Things took a turn from here.... The samples contained more proportion of heavier oxygen-18 than we see in present world.

Presently the proportion of oxygen-18 is about 0.2%. This is kept constant by the continents and the soil it contains. Today's continents contain clay-rich soil which disproportionately absorb the heavier isotope of oxygen from water.

This indicated that the ancient Earth didn't had any significant amount of soil or landmass to absorb oxygen-18. Earth was a legit blue ball with trace amount of micro-continents!

Benjamin Johnson inspects an outcrop in the Panorama district by what was once an ancient hydrothermal vent. Credit: Jana Meixnerova

 This will surely shake the foundation of some of the theories which suggested that first living cell appeared due to concentration of organic molecules on land. While the theory that life may have started near a hydrothermal vent deep below in the ocean is now seeming more probable scenario.

The findings were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Their are still a lot of secrets of Earth to be unlocked. Everytime we dig we find something new.

Have you ever wondered what are our options if this ball blasted; check this out : Top 5 Exoplanets that can hold life