Signs of life dating back 2.5billion years: IIT Kharagpur Researchers

Guwahati: Researchers at IIT Kharagpur have discovered evidence of life that dates back over 2.5 billion years ago to the start of the Great Oxidation Event which marks a time in history when Oxygen first began filtering from the oceans into the atmosphere allowing surface life to develop on the planet.

The IIT researchers have found signs of these bacteria in the Deccan about three kilometers below the surface. The researchers said that they had actually been asked by the government to join a search being conducted by geologists in Konya, Maharashtra in 2014. Apparently, a devastating earthquake occurred in 1964 and they are keen to know as what had triggered it and they decided to explore the possibility of life being buried there in what are some of the oldest igneous rock formations in the world. And with no water, sunlight or air to reach them there, the team still found these microbes.

It'll require more intricate tests to determine if the vast swathes of microbes they found are still alive, but the fact they were even found could lend credence to a decades-old theory. It's truly a marvelous discovery for an Indian institute.

The team led by Pinaki Sar has managed to stun the Ministry of Earth Sciences and the microbes which were identified as bacteria date back to a time when the earth's crust was unstable. Sar said that the crust of the earth punctuated by volcanic eruptions would intermittently cool between 2.5 billion years and 65 million years ago.

Deccan Traps, a large igneous province in the Deccan plateau of west-central India, was home to the first life forms, revealed the research.

According to Sar, the depths of these ancient rocks do not have oxygen, water, organics or light to support life. The rock cores which has been dug out from three boreholes were investigated and have been able to prove microbial existence.

The next phase of the research will determine whether the organisms are still alive.

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