The way this article is written is very misleading. This is not in any form or fashion the "oldest body of seawater yet found" nor is it unusual to find ancien

The way this article is written is very misleading. This is not in any form or fashion the "oldest body of seawater yet found" nor is it unusual to find ancient trapped seawater. "Connate water" is water trapped in sediments at the time of their deposition. Whether or not connate water is preserved in large quantities depends on the local permeability structure of the sediments and the regional hydrology. However, it's very common for connate water to be preserved more or less indefinitely (particularly in shales). In other words, there's a _lot_ of trapped seawater almost everywhere you look. What's unique about this isn't that there's trapped seawater, and it's certainly not the oldest connate water discovered (nor do the authors of the actual article claim that it is). It's unique because: A) it's direct evidence that the Central Atlantic had a very high salinity even long after it opened. (The authors are using the term "north atlantic" for some strange reason, but this segment is more commonly referred to as the "central atlantic") B) The connate water survived a metorite impact without being highly disturbed.