Thursday February 13, 2025
PhysOrg —
Scientists at Yale and in Singapore have devised what may be the ultimate acid test—a comprehensive model for estimating the origins of Earth’s habitability, based in part on ocean acidity.
The new theoretical model applies previously published, Yale-led research to a wide range of interconnected geological and atmospheric processes. It may provide the clearest picture yet of how Earth evolved to a point where life was able to flourish.
“This is a tour-de-force theoretical endeavor, bridging a longstanding gap between surface processes and processes deep in the Earth,” said Jun Korenaga, a professor of Earth and planetary sciences in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and co-author of a new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. “This work presents by far the most comprehensive whole-Earth system model to estimate how ocean pH likely evolved during Earth’s history.”
The term pH (“potential of hydrogen”) is a measure of the concentration of hydrogen ions in an aqueous—watery—solution. A lower pH level equals higher acidity. A solution with a pH lower than 7 is considered acidic; modern-day seawater has a pH of about 8.