Scientists find water was fueling volcanoes 3 billion years ago

Geologists studying some of Earth's oldest volcanic rocks have found evidence that water was already influencing the planet's interior and helping drive volcanic activity more than three billion years ago.

The international team, led by Adelaide University geochemist Dr. Eric Vandenburg, examined ancient rocks from Western Australia's Pilbara Craton. Their analysis suggests that water had traveled far beneath the surface before contributing to the formation of magma that fed volcanoes resembling those found around the Pacific "Ring of Fire" today.

Published in Nature Communications, the findings indicate that Earth may have been recycling water between its surface and interior much earlier than scientists had realized, even though the young planet operated very differently from the world we know now.

Dr. Vandenburg, from the School of Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences, said the ancient rocks offer an unusual opportunity to investigate conditions on Earth billions of years ago.