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

2009年8月，ICDP批准了一个在南非巴伯顿绿岩带钻探的项目。巴伯顿是仅有的两个沉积岩和火山岩保存完好的地方之一，它们保留了年轻地球上条件的可靠记录，拥有世界上保存最完好的中太古代（3.5-3.2 Ga）表壳岩系列。钻探项目涉及地球和生物科学中最有趣的问题之一--生命开始的地点和时间？巴伯顿的沉积岩提供了3.2亿年的记录了陆地表面和地球古代海洋底部的状况。火山岩包含了更热、更活跃的太古宙地幔和熔岩喷发的环境的信息，让我们对早期生命的环境有了一个概念。地表岩石已经得到了很好的研究，但下一步的关键是获得足够新鲜的材料，利用现代分析技术更深入地研究生命的地球化学和生物化学特征。这只能通过钻孔来实现。此外，这些材料提供了一个重要的机会，以确定太古代岩石为今天的生命提供了什么样的栖息地和能源，以及地下栖息地的特征如何在十亿年的时间尺度上发生变化。这只能通过强大的微生物污染控制来实现。该PI领导了ICDP切萨皮克湾撞击坑的地质微生物学研究，这是第一个包含微生物学的ICDP项目。目标之一是将这种专门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。在本项目建议书中，我们寻求获得NERC的支持，为钻井做出贡献，以确保英国参与该项目。剑桥大学、皇家霍洛威大学、伦敦大学、布里斯托大学和开放大学的研究小组将因获得核心材料而受益。

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.