Kharagpur: The researchers from IIT-Kharagpur have managed to find evidence of life in India dating back at least 2.5 billion years. The signs of life were found in the form of microbial cells in the Deccan region of the country. The findings have now been published on Scientific Reports: Nature, an online journal from the publishers of Nature
According to reports of Times of India, It took nearly four years for the team to find the microbes at a depth of 3kilometress. According to researchers they find marks the beginning of time is called asGreat Oxidation Event when oxygen entered the Earth’s surface.
The team of researchers Led by Pinaki Sar and the team has now managed to stun the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The microbes, which were identified as bacteria, date back to a time when the crust of earth 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. But they would again be shaken up by fresh eruptions. First life forms started making appearances at the time when the earth’s crust cooled down.
Research reveals, Deccan Traps, a large igneous province in the Deccan plateau of west-central India, was home to the first life forms, revealed the research.
The research began four years ago at Koyna, Maharashtra where geologists were trying to establish the cause of a devastating earthquake in 1964. During the research, the ministry had asked the IIT scientists to investigate the possibility of life forms inside the rock valley.