I recently watched a video that mentioned the “toxic pit problem” of how closed mines turn into toxic lakes full of rainwater and harmful chemicals. Some companies are trying to fix them, but I was wondering if the Earth could “purify” itself if left completely alone?
Like, let’s say all of humanity disappeared tomorrow, could the harmful chemicals be filtered out or dissolved or changed after a billion years?
In: Planetary Science
Oh it’s only toxic to life *as we currently know it*.
But life likes to adapt. It’s what it does.
Read up about the **Great Oxidation Event**.
The TL;DR is that oxygen used to be rare as it’s *highly reactive* and *incredibly toxic* to myriad species at the time. But it caused an explosion of growth and new organisms and here we are now, requiring that (formerly) toxic element to *survive*. Not that those prior organisms would even *recognize* the Earth the way it currently is — since it killed them.
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