The key to discovering the secrets of life at the bottom of the ocean 150 million years ago has been discovered, and it was trapped inside ancient salt formations this whole time. Experts have been able to uncover the Earth's geological history y studying tiny water particles which have been preserved in crystals for millions of years. It’s all to do with analysing the amount of lithium which is trapped in samples rock salt. As it turns out, the level of lithium can tell us far more about atmospheric conditions in the oceans over the ages than most of us previously realised. Geochemists Mebrahtu Weldeghebriel of Princeton University and Binghamton University and Tim Lowenstein of Binghamton University have published their findings in a new study. The rock salt they studied, known as marine halite, came from across the world including the US, Europe, Asia and Africa. A total of 639 samples were taken from 65 halite crystals dating back to 150 million years ago. "There is a close link between ocean chemistry and atmospheric chemistry," Weldeghebriel said. “Whatever changes happen in the ocean also reflect what's happening in the atmosphere." "The oceans and atmosphere are connected to one another, and how they change is related," Lowenstein added. "Everything is connected." Most notably, their findings have helped to create a better understanding of tectonic movement on the seafloor. The reason the presence of lithium was so important is due to what it tells us about hydrothermal activity. The amount in the water indicates the levels of chemicals and heat which was being released into the oceans by vents between tectonic plates. As tectonic plate activity declined, there was a global drop in lithium levels. Instead, it was replaced by a rise in magnesium and calcium. The reduction in activity would also have meant less carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere, which could potentially have been a factor in the temperature drop which resulted in the ice age. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 26, 2023--

Andrew Tate invited his fans to spend a day without the distractions of electronic devices and join the stream on Rumble

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is due in court Wednesday to defend the company’s proposed $69 billion takeover of video game maker Activision Blizzard

LEHI, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

TL;DR: ExpressVPN is a reliable choice for unblocking porn sites. This high-speed VPN can bypass

Asian regulators have stolen a march on the US by clarifying crypto rules, exemplified by Hong Kong’s first

Elon Musk has accepted an offer from legendary MMA fighter George St-Pierre to train him for his upcoming fight against Mark Zuckerberg. The two tech billionaires agreed to a “cage match” last week after Mr Musk first proposed a fight following rumours that the Meta boss was working on a new platform to rival Mr Musk’s Twitter. The UFC Apex centre in Las Vegas will be the likely location of the contest, which has been endorsed by UFC president Dana White. Mr Zuckerberg already practises martial arts and competed in his first jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year. Mr Musk, by contrast, claims to “almost never work out”, though does have a significant size advantage over his rival. Former UFC champion St-Pierre, who retired in 2019, is widely considered one of the greatest ever mixed martial artists, having won both the welterweight and middleweight titles. Addressing Mr Musk on Twitter over the weekend, the retired fighter wrote: “I’m a huge fan of yours and it would be an absolute honour to help you and be your training partner for the challenge against Zuckerberg.” On Monday evening, Mr Musk replied: “OK, let’s do it.” The SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter boss revealed that he had a “practice round” with podcaster and jiu jitsu fighter Lex Fridman on Monday evening. Mr Fridman also sparred with Mr Zuckerberg last week, with a video showing the Facebook founder submitting the black belt with a choke hold. No date has been set for the fight, though both opponents have spoken to the UFC president about the contest. Mr White said that the pair were “absolutely dead serious” about the bout. “They both said, ‘Yeah, we’ll do it’. They both want to do it’,” he told TMZ. “This would be the biggest fight ever in the history of the world. Bigger than anything that’s ever been done. It would break all pay-per-view records... You don’t have to be a fighting fan to be interested in this fight. Everybody would want to see it.” Read More Elon Musk confirms cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg Twitter hacker who took over Musk, Obama, Biden accounts gets prison sentence Elon Musk confirms cage fight with Mark Zuckerberg Elon Musk sparks outrage with threat to ban ‘cisgender’ as a ‘slur’ on Twitter

Elon Musk agreed with xQc's feedback about the live video streaming button on X needing some tweaking

HAIFA, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2023--

By Krystal Hu Venture capital funding globally almost halved in the first six months of 2023, data from

Turns out bears have been just as vain as the rest of us, all along.