A geologist tastes the world's oldest water, after discovering it long ago

The oldest water was found in the world's deepest basalt metal mine, where the search for minerals such as copper, zinc and silver has taken miners deeper and deeper into the Earth's crust. As the mine shaft was dug deeper, researchers took the opportunity to explore more about what was there.

They then found water and analyzed the water by studying the gas trapped in it. Gases such as helium and xenon are known to be trapped in water stuck in rock crevices. By analyzing the water, researchers can find out how old it is. The results show that the mine water is more than 2 billion years old.

When they further analyzed the fluid, traces of life were found in it. Not bacteria, but the fingerprints of life. This means that they discovered that there are several forms of microbiology that live in water and for very long periods of time.

By looking at the sulfate content in the water, we can see fingerprints that indicate the presence of life. And we were able to show that the signals we see in fluids are generated by microbiology, and most importantly, this is done over very long time scales. "The microbes that produce this signature can't do it overnight," Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who led the study, told BBC News.

“This is an indication that organisms have been present in these fluids on geological time scales.”

According to Long Li, assistant professor at the University of Alberta's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, in the absence of light, microbes are able to survive on substrates produced from radiation. The substrate contained in this ancient water was produced through a reaction between water and rock. This means that this reaction will occur naturally and can last as long as water and rock touch each other, perhaps for billions of years.

The question is, what does the oldest water in the world taste like?

According to Sherwood Lollar, old water usually has a salty taste. Out of curiosity, he also tried tasting the 2 billion-old water using his finger. As expected, the water had a salty and bitter taste, even saltier than sea water. This isn't too surprising considering he's so old