To learn more about ancient Earth’s life (past life and environments.) Geologists have recently uncovered minuscule traces of bacterial and algal life preserved inside halite crystals dating back 830 million years. The natural mineral halite, sometimes known as rock salt, is sodium chloride, and its discovery suggests that it could be a previously undiscovered resource for researching ancient saltwater ecosystems. Furthermore, the creatures imprisoned inside could still be alive.
The extraordinary study also has implications for the search for ancient life, not just on Earth, but in extraterrestrial environments, such as Mars, where large salt deposits have been identified as evidence of ancient, large-scale liquid water reservoirs.
The organisms don’t look like you might be expecting. Previous ancient microfossils have been found pressed into rock formations, such as shale, dating back billions of years. Salt is not able to preserve organic material in the same way.
