Traces of early life in precious stones. Free Technical Library News

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Traces of early life in precious stones

01.11.2021

Analyzing some of the world's oldest colored gemstones, scientists at the University of Waterloo, Canada, have discovered carbon remains associated with ancient life trapped in a 2,5 billion-year-old ruby.

The research team began to study the geology of rubies in order to better understand the conditions necessary for the formation of these stones. During this exploration in Greenland, home to the oldest known ruby deposits in the world, the team uncovered a gemstone specimen that contains graphite, a mineral composed of pure carbon. Analysis of this carbon shows that it is the remnant of early life.

The presence of graphite allowed scientists to analyze the isotopic composition of carbon atoms, which measures the relative amounts of different carbon atoms. More than 98 percent of all carbon atoms have a mass of 12 atomic mass units (carbon-12), but a few carbon atoms are heavier and have a mass of 13 or 14 atomic mass units (carbon-13, carbon-14).

"Living matter preferentially consists of lighter carbon atoms, because they require less energy to be incorporated into cells," the authors noted. "Based on the increased amount of carbon-12 in this graphite, we concluded that carbon atoms once were ancient life." Most likely, the ancient carbon is associated with microorganisms, such as cyanobacteria, which readily consumed carbon-12.

Graphite has been found in rocks older than 2,5 billion years, when the planet had little oxygen in the atmosphere and life existed only in microorganisms and films of algae.

During this study, the team found that this graphite not only links the gemstone to ancient life, but is also likely necessary for this ruby to exist at all. Graphite has changed the chemical composition of the surrounding rocks to create favorable conditions for the ruby to grow. Modeling showed that without this condition, rubies would not have been able to form at this location.

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