A wooden record that is believed to be 50 million years old has been transported from below in the Diavik Diamond mine in the NWT, a finding that researchers say it is remarkable but not uncommon.
In a publication about the Discovery on Facebook last week, the mine described it as a record of 136 kilograms (300 pounds) of a dry tree that found 240 meters below the ground. In an email, a Diavik spokesman said it was discovered on February 20 during regular mining in the PIT A21 while the miners were removing Kimberlite mineral.
Diavik is found in the tundra in Lac of fat about 300 kilometers northeast of Yellowknife.
“The Kimberlita rock from which the wood was recovered has been dated approximately 50 million years using accepted techniques of age,” they said. “Consequently, the encapsulated materials within the Kimberlita rock, including this wood, is understood that they are the same age.”
The spokesman said that the wooden pieces regularly recover from the diavik kimberlite pipes, but this is remarkable due to their size. They said that when the wood is in Kimberlite, the work stops so that it can be removed safely.
“This discovery is significant, since it offers a rare vision of the distant past, enriching our understanding of the ancient environment. It also highlights how mining operations can contribute to scientific research and knowledge,” wrote the spokesman.
They did not say exactly what would happen with the discovery, but said that Diavik “retains” the wood he has found, has previously sent pieces to study and that “would discuss the future management of such specimens” as the mine approaches the closure.
The Prince of Wales’ Heritage Center, the NWT Museum and Archives, already has a piece of wood of 55 million years of a metasequoia tree that is on a diavik on display, and another from the neighboring ekati diamond mine that is believed to have 52 million years inside its stored collection.
An online record Because the Ekati record says that Metasequoia was a common swamp plant at that time and that when a Kimberlita volcano exploded, the remains of the tree collapsed at the top and were locked in the Kimberlita rock. “It is a real, not mineralized or petrified wood,” says the entrance.
A spokesman for the Department of Education, Culture and Employment of the territory said Tuesday that the museum had not spoken with Diavik about its recent finding.
Alberto Reyes, on the other hand, associated professor in the Department of Land and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Alberta, said he communicated with Diavik and is interested in obtaining a sample of the tree.
“It’s a really remarkable finding,” he said. “I have seen that kind of thing before, but also, Santos Smoks that is a great record.”
Reyes, co -author in a recent article on evidence of palm trees at the NWT 48 million years agoHe said he was interested in finding out what configuration the record was recovered.
He said that scientists know that 50 million years ago, the region would have been an ecosystem wet temperate forest with metasene, hazelnuts, chestnut trees and oaks.
“It would almost have seemed to Nashville, Tennessee in some way, in terms of weather.”
But that paints a broad image of the earth at that time, said Reyes, while studying this newly discovered tree could generate more specific information.
“The ability to observe climatic variability from year to year over time for a period of … Our history when it is much warmer than the present in the Arctic would be really fascinating. We still do not have great management about that.”
Does ancient wood remain real wood?
Reyes and Christopher West, Paleobotany curator at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alberta, agree that the tree is probably 50 million years old.
West said there are two ways in which the mine may have discovered how many years its Kimberlita pipes are: a method is to observe fossil pollen in the area, which reveals what type of plants were growing at that time and anchors the material in a particular period. The other implies studying a layer of ashes that may be present.
West said it is also “quite common” to find fossil trunks with straight ends that seem to have been cut with a chainsaw.
He said that when there are floods or an event in which many sediments are deposited, a dead tree can be partially covered. “Finally, the tree is separated and the aspects will be cut and softened,” he said.
West says that the tree may have preserved through permineralization, a type of fossilization that would make the tree hard to touch, or through coalification, a process that converts plant matter into coal, in which case it could still feel a bit woody.
Reyes, however, suspects that the recently discovered record can still be wood, at least inside. He has examined similar environments specimens, such as a piece of wood of a Kimberlite pipe in the NWT in 2007, which seemed carbonized only abroad.
It meant that Kings and a colleague could do chemical tests to try to rebuild the weather at that time.
“That was my first type of foot in the world of … diamond mines and ancient climate in NWT and we have continued to go from there.”
