Peering into the Cradle of Life: Drilling the Barberton Greenstone Belt

2009年8月，ICDP批准了一个在南非Barberton Greenstone带钻探的项目。巴伯顿是仅有的两个保存足够完好的沉积岩和火山岩的地方之一，它们保留了年轻地球上可靠的条件记录，拥有世界上保存最完好的中太古代(3.5-3.2Ga)表壳岩系。钻探项目解决了地球和生物科学中最令人感兴趣的问题之一--生命是在哪里以及什么时候开始的？巴伯顿的沉积岩提供了320英里的年龄。对陆地表面和地球古代海洋海底状况的记录。这些火山岩提供了更热、更具活力的太古宙地幔以及熔岩喷发的背景信息，让我们对早期生命的背景有了一个了解。地表岩石已经得到了很好的研究，但关键的下一步是获得足够新鲜的材料，以便使用现代分析技术更深入地研究生命的地球化学和生化特征。这只能通过钻探来实现。此外，这些材料提供了一个重要的机会来确定太古宙岩石为今天的生命提供了什么栖息地和能源，以及地下栖息地的特征在10亿年的时间尺度上是如何变化的。这只能通过强有力的微生物污染控制来实现。该小组领导了ICDP切萨皮克湾撞击坑的地球微生物研究，这是ICDP第一个包括微生物学的项目。其中一个目标是将这种专业知识应用于巴伯顿项目。该项目得到了来自五大洲13个国家的科学家和矿产勘探行业的支持。在这个项目提案中，我们寻求从NERC获得支持，为钻探做出贡献，以确保英国参与该项目。将从获取核心材料中受益的研究小组位于剑桥大学、伦敦皇家霍洛威大学、布里斯托尔大学和开放大学。

In August 2009, the ICDP approved a project to drill the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. The Barberton is one of the only two places where sedimentary and volcanic rocks are sufficiently well preserved that they retain a reliable record of the conditions on the young Earth, hosting some of the best-preserved successions of mid-Archean (3.5-3.2 Ga) supracrustal rocks in the world. The drilling project deals with what is one of the most intriguing questions in the Earth and biological sciences - where and when did life begin? The sedimentary rocks at Barberton provide a 320 m.y. record of conditions on the land surface and on the floor of earth's ancient oceans. The volcanic rocks have information about the hotter and more dynamic Archean mantle and the setting in which the lavas erupted, giving us an idea of the setting for early life. The surface rocks have been well studied, but the key next step is to obtain fresh enough material to investigate in greater depth the geochemical and biochemical signatures of life using modern analytical techniques. This can only be done by drilling. In addition, the material offers an important opportunity to determine what habitat and energy sources Archean rocks provide to life today and how the characteristics of subsurface habitats alter over billion year time scales. This can only be done by robust microbiological contamination control. The PI led the geomicrobiological study of the ICDP Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater, the first ICDP project to include microbiology. One objective is to apply this expertise to the Barberton project. The project is supported by scientists from 13 countries in five continents and by the mineral exploration industry. In this project proposal we seek to gain support from NERC for a contribution to drilling to secure the UK's involvement in the project. Research groups that will benefit from access to the core material are at the University of Cambridge, Royal Holloway, London, the University of Bristol and the Open University.