Barberton holds the secrets to early life

A trove of international treasures in the form of ancient rock layers of the Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains has scientists from all over the world investigating the surface conditions of early Earth and what the planet may have looked like more than three billion years ago.

Barberton’s Makhonjwa Mountains is one of the two places in the world where the oldest, most well-preserved rocks are found. They provide highly sought-after information about the early history of our planet.

The Moodies-BASE Drilling Project, which started in late November, is taking a deep dive into Earth’s history by drilling several boreholes, each about 200 to 400 metres long, into the ancient rocks to learn more.

The project is coordinated by Prof Christoph Heubeck of Friedrich-Schiller University Jena in Germany and Prof Nic Beukes of the University of Johannesburg. After gaining the support of the South African government and from national research agencies and universities all over the world, the drilling began.

On January 20, Lowvelder visited one of the sites, led by Heubeck. While there, the drilling engineers extracted samples of rock from deep underground that Heubeck said had been formed over 3 220 million years ago, long before plant or animal life had existed on Earth.

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He said geologists know very little about the first quarter of Earth’s history as its surface was too hot. Most rocks would melt soon after being formed, leaving barely any samples for scientists to examine today.

However, Heubeck said there are fossilised bacterial mats resembling cyanobacteria from the rocks found in the Barberton mountains. These are the organisms solely responsible for releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. The rocks will tell the researchers when these organisms came into existence and what the conditions on Earth’s surface were in the early history of the planet.

“To find out when this process started is fundamental to understanding the weathering processes on the surface and its temperature,” he said.

“We think the ocean temperature at the time was between 50 and 80 degrees Celsius and the air was just as hot.

“The conditions under which the rocks were originally deposited, show us a world without any atmosphere, without oxygen and with acid rain. The days were only about 14 hours long and the moon circled around Earth on a much closer orbit.”

When Lowvelder examined the core samples of extracted rock, Heubeck pointed to various spots that showed that volcanic ash had settled and where major disruptive events, such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis, may have occurred.

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The scientists are encouraging South Africans to visit and experience the project in order to see some of the oldest rocks in the world, watch drilling in action, and see what can be learned from them.

“This region is of international importance. Similar rocks cannot be found anywhere else in the world, besides a remote region in Australia. South Africans should take advantage of incredible research being conducted right on their doorstep,” said Phumelele Mashele, who is one of the geoscientists working on the project.

“This should be especially relevant for teachers and learners in the upper classes of high school.”

The project is housing its research facility a magnificent display of ancient rocks, and an abundance of scientific background information at the Barberton Iron and Steel Hall of the Barberton Museum. The project can also be found on Facebook at Moodies-BASE Project.

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