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| Oldest piece of Earth's crust found | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 24 2014, 11:51 PM (201 Views) | |
| CJ | Feb 24 2014, 11:51 PM Post #1 |
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A very minor case of serious brain damage
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26324968 A tiny 4.4-billion-year-old crystal has been confirmed as the oldest fragment of Earth's crust. The zircon was found in sandstone in the Jack Hills region of Western Australia. Scientists dated the crystal by studying its uranium and lead atoms. The former decays into the latter very slowly over time and can be used like a clock. Its implication is that Earth had formed a solid crust much sooner after its formation 4.6 billion years ago than was previously thought, and very quickly following the great collision with a Mars-sized body that is thought to have produced the Moon just a few tens of millions of years after that. Before this time, Earth would have been a seething ball of molten magma. But knowledge that its surface hardened so early raises the tantalising prospect that our world became ready to host life very early in its history. Wow, it's pretty amazing that something like that can survive for so long. I wonder whether any life did exist at that point? |
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| Zero Revolution | Feb 25 2014, 02:27 AM Post #2 |
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King Zero
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Well I guess history is going to have to change now. That's really cool actually. 4.4 billion years is hard to imagine though...
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| CJ | Feb 26 2014, 09:12 PM Post #3 |
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A very minor case of serious brain damage
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Well, the estimated age of the Earth is 4.54 billion years - which would give the Earth only 140 million years to cool down after forming. And the asteroid that struck to form the Moon won't have helped there .
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That's really cool actually. 4.4 billion years is hard to imagine though...
12:20 AM Jul 11