捆绑SM社区

Discovery of rocks as old as 4.28 billion years pushes back age of most ancient remnant of Earth鈥檚 crust by 300 million years

捆绑SM社区 researchers have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth 鈥� a discovery which sheds more light on our planet鈥檚 mysterious beginnings. These rocks, known as 鈥渇aux-amphibolites鈥�, may be remnants of a portion of Earth鈥檚 primordial crust 鈥� the first crust that formed at the surface of our planet. The ancient rocks were found in Northern Quebec, along the Hudson鈥檚 Bay coast, 40 km south of Inukjuak in an area known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt. Their results will be published in the September 26 issue of the journal Science.

The discovery was made by Jonathan O鈥橬eil, a Ph.D. candidate at 捆绑SM社区鈥檚 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Richard W. Carlson, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., Don Francis, a 捆绑SM社区 professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Ross K. Stevenson, a professor at the Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al (UQAM).

O鈥橬eil and colleagues estimated the age of the rocks using radioactive dating, which analyzes the isotope neodymium-142 within them, produced from the decay of the isotope samarium-146. This technique can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older; this is the first time it has ever been used to date terrestrial rocks, because nothing this old has ever been discovered before.

The data from these findings will give researchers a new window on the early separation of Earth鈥檚 mantle from the crust in the Hadean Era, said O鈥橬eil.

"Our discovery not only opens the door to further unlock the secrets of the Earth鈥檚 beginnings," he continued. 鈥淕eologists now have a new playground to explore how and when life began, what the atmosphere may have looked like, and when the first continent formed.鈥�