With a study published in Nature Scientific Reports on iron ooids found off the island of Panarea, the processes that probably also produced some of the oldest rocks on our planet and similar concretions identified on Mars, the red planet, were discovered.
In a study conducted on hydrothermal sands from a deposit off the island of Panarea, the cds were analysed. “iron-ooids”, i.e. grains of sand with a core and outer bark of concentric plates made up of iron minerals. The research revealed an exceptional, unique find of a deposit of iron-ooids still forming on the seabed at a depth of 80 meters in an area characterized by intense hydrothermal activity on the volcanic island north of Sicily.
From the integrated study, carried out by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, X-ray fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy, hitherto unknown information emerged on the processes that led to the formation of similar deposits present in the oldest rocks on Earth and in the soils of Mars . In fact, the knowledge that these sands (iron ooids) are forming today due to the phenomenon of underwater hydrothermalism has important implications for understanding both the geological processes that affected our planet in the first phase of its formation and for understanding of the geological evolution of the Red Planet, consolidating the importance of submarine hydrothermal systems for the origin of life on Earth and, therefore, of the presence of water and possible forms of life in the geological past of Mars.
The proposed results model a possible process responsible for ooid formation and provide new insight into the genesis of globally distributed iron ooid deposits in both modern and past sediments.
The research group involved in this study was conducted by researchers from the Palermo Section of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV), together with researchers from the Department of Mathematical, Computer, Physical and Earth Sciences (MIFT) of the University of Messina, of the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences (DSCG) of the University of Modena-Reggio Emilia, of the Department of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences (BiGeA) of the University of Bologna and of the Center de Biophysique Moléculaire (CNRS) of Orléans ( France).
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picture 1 – Formation model of ooids in submarine hydrothermal environments
picture 2 – Geological overview of the Panarea area