Re:Oldest water on earth, in a Canadian mine
by calebm on Thursday March 02, 2023 @09:16AM
(#34995898)
Maybe this is a silly question, but how can a mass spectrometer determine the age of water?
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Re:Oldest water on earth, in a Canadian mine
by walnutclosefarm on Thursday March 02, 2023 @09:36AM
(#34996154)
They are not really determining the age of the water, but rather how long the water has been isolated from other water, and thus changing entirely as a result of local interactions with the containing substrate, and the entrained microbial life in the water. That's based on the isotope ratios of the oxygen and hydrogen in the water.