The twin version of the world has revealed the Earth’s life-sustaining secrets, recently discovered in the United States.
A research team led by Dr. Sebastian Haas from the University of Washington has found that Last Chance Lake, a well-known lake in the U.S., is analogous to the bodies of water that contained the building blocks of life on Earth 4 billion years ago.
According to Live Science, Last Chance Lake is a shallow, extremely saline body of water with an unusual chemical composition, particularly with a phosphate concentration over 1,000 times higher than that of the ocean.
By late summer, the water had evaporated almost completely, leaving a salty crust on the surface of Last Chance Lake, rich in calcium, carbonate, and phosphate – (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON).
Phosphate is an essential component for creating nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA and RNA) and other compounds that form life, such as lipids (fats).
Although phosphate is found in all living organisms, this compound is quite rare in nature.
Phosphate also plays a crucial role in the beginning of life. Previous models have indicated that a significant amount of phosphate is required for the initial biochemical reactions that would allow prebiotic materials to transform into actual life.
Today, phosphate-rich environments are scarce, and the concentrations of this compound are often very low.
The only exception is types of “soda lakes” like Last Chance.
This lake is called a soda lake due to its high levels of dissolved sodium and carbonate, giving the water’s surface the appearance of a basin filled with dissolved baking soda.
A mineral-rich piece of lakebed – (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON).
This chemical composition allows the lake to have a high concentration of phosphates.
Moreover, this high level of calcium and carbonate results from the reaction between groundwater and the volcanic rock beneath the lake.
Last Chance Lake was formed after the last Ice Age (which ended around 10,000 years ago), as radiocarbon dating indicates it is no more than 3,300 years old.
Despite this, the conditions that formed the lake eerily mimic those found in many bodies of water on early Earth, which humanity has discovered evidence of through ancient sediments.
In other words, Last Chance acts as a “time capsule” from the world 4 billion years ago, providing insights into the environment rich in phosphates that was necessary for the first life forms to emerge.
According to the research, similar bodies of water may have existed on other planets in our solar system, including Mars, billions of years ago.
If we are fortunate enough to discover another phosphate-rich lake on another planet, we could be closer to finding extraterrestrial life.
The results were recently published in the scientific journal Communications Earth and Environment.
