Tiny crystals of zircon dated to 3.8 billion years ago contain the earliest geochemical evidence yet for plate tectonic activity here on Earth.
Isotopes and trace elements preserved in the crystals show evidence that they formed under subduction conditions – when the edge of one tectonic plate slips beneath the edge of the adjacent plate, creating specific conditions. This provides new constraints on when plate tectonics emerged on Earth.
Understanding the geology of early Earth is something of a challenge. The crust of our world has been pretty dynamic over its 4.6-billion-year history, and the only direct record of theThese crystals seem to survive the ravages of time but rarely: just 12 locations on Earth have yielded the ancient grains, three or fewer in most locations.
Recently, however, a team of geologists unearthed an amazing treasure. A chronological series of 33 microscopic zircon crystals, dating from 4.15 to 3.3 billion years ago, was found in an ancient block of Earth's crust found in the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa. The series provided a rare opportunity to probe the changing conditions of early Earth, from the Hadean through the
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