Scientists collect liquid remains from the sea that existed 390 million years ago | Sciences

The study is published October 12 in the journal Nature Earth sciences and planetary messages. Waterways hidden in iron pyrite minerals have been discovered in the Northern Appalachian Basin in western New York.

According to the chemical profile of the samples, not only New York was occupied by the ancient Inland Sea. In the Middle Devonian period, this body of water extended from present-day Michigan to Ontario, at Canada.

Scientists studied the samples at the nanoscale with a technique that can expand climatologywhich may help locate underground sites for hydrogen storage intended for hydrogen production Carbon free energy.

“We’ve found that we can actually extract information from these mineral features that can help inform geological studies, such as seawater chemistry from ancient times,” said Sandra Taylor, first author of the study and a scientist in the Department of Energy’s National Pacific Northwest division. USA laboratory, at communication.

The team used mass spectrometry and atomic probe tomography techniques. The latter is one of the few methods that allow not only atoms to be measured hydrogenbut also to see where the element goes in the metal, according to Taylor.

“This study indicates that small defects in minerals could be potential hydrogen traps,” explains the researcher. “So with this technology, we can learn what’s going on at the atomic level, which will help evaluate and improve underground hydrogen storage strategies.”

The discovery also represents the youngest liquid remains of an ancient inland sea ever uncovered by science. Researchers believe that the marine part was once home to coral reefs that rivaled it Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Scorpions Giant crabs, the size of a pickup truck, patrolled the waters that were home to now-extinct creatures like the earliest examples of horseshoe crabs. However, the climate changed and most of the animals disappeared along with the sea itself, leaving only the fauna behind fossil remains Embedded in the sediment that eventually became the pyrite rock sample.

Scientists noticed that the mineral looked like berries under a microscope, so they named it Framboides, a term derived from the French word for that fruit (Framboise)🇧🇷 “We first looked at these samples through an electron microscope, and we saw these kind of little bubbles or little features inside the Ramboid and we wondered what it was,” Taylor said.

The team then discovered that the bubbles actually contained water – and the salt’s chemical composition matched that of ancient seas. Scientists usually use mineral deposits to estimate ocean temperatures.