19 million year old wood discovered on the bottom of the sea

The majority of wood chips in sediments on the bottom of the Bay of Bengal belong to ancient trees growing in lowlands near the sea.

Sarah Feakins, an expert at the University of Southern California, and the team found traces of ancient forests in the Bay of Bengal, Newsweek reported on October 21. They collected sediment samples deeper than 3 km below the sea and brought them back for analysis. The results showed that the majority of wood chips in sediment belonged to trees growing in lowlands near the sea. Some originate from trees growing in the Himalayas, at an altitude of about 3.2 km above sea level.

Millions of years ago, many ancient trees could have been swept away by the flood waters.(Photo: Flickr).

The team suggests that these ancient trees had uprooted when encountering swift currents, possibly originating from glaciers or a landslide. They then continue to be swept up by thousands of kilometers of water from rain, floods or storms, eventually sinking in the Bay of Bengal.

This is the first evidence that trees can be swept thousands of kilometers away, from the mountains to the deep sea. The new study also reveals more information about the role of wood in the Earth's carbon cycle.

Carbon in plants is released when eaten, decomposed or burnt. The newly discovered ancient trees were swept away shortly after death so they did not decompose. Instead, fresh wood is confined to sediments on the sea floor. This could be a way to store carbon for millions of years that scientists have never known. This also indicates that the amount of carbon confined to the continental margins may be higher than previously estimated.

Understanding the amount of carbon in the undersea plants is important for climate change research, Fearkins said . "When we tried to calculate the amount of carbon in every part of the carbon cycle, we didn't know about this forest buried in the sea floor. Now we need to add it to the equation , " she explained.

Scientists around the world are learning about the carbon cycle. According to the Deep Carbon Observatory, the US research program, less than 1% of the Earth's total carbon is located on the surface, that is, the sea, land and atmosphere. The rest are confined under the crust, mantle and Earth core.

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