What 'Z' mineral found in Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia with an age of 4.404 billion years might be the oldest mineral on earth?
"mineral zircon, which can survive the disaggregation of their parent rock and be found and dated in younger rock formations. The oldest material of terrestrial origin that has been dated is a zircon mineral of 4.404 ±0.008 Ga enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia. The 4.404 ±0.008 Ga zircon is a slight outlier, with the oldest consistently-dated zircon falling closer to 4.35 Ga. This zircon is part of a population of zircons within the metamorphosed conglomerate, which is believed to have been deposited about 3.060 Ga, which is"
"in Western Australia are the oldest continental fragments on Earth, yet they appear to post-date the LHB. The oldest mineral yet dated on Earth, a 4.404 Ga zircon from Jack Hills, predates this event, but it is likely a fragment of crust left over from before the LHB, contained within a much younger (~3.8 Ga old) rock. The Jack Hills zircon led to something of a revolution in our understanding of the Hadean eon. Older references generally show that Hadean Earth had a molten surface with prominent volcanos. The name ""Hadean"" itself refers to the ""hellish"" conditions assumed on Earth"
"of carbon minerals interpreted as ""remains of biotic life"" were found in 4.1-billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. The oldest dated zircon crystals, enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia, date to 4.404 ± 0.008 Ga. This zircon is a slight outlier, with the oldest consistently-dated zircon falling closer to 4.35 Ga—around 200 million years after the hypothesized time of the Earth's formation. In many other areas, xenocryst (or relict) Hadean zircons enclosed in older rocks indicate that younger rocks have formed on older terranes and have incorporated some of"
"have yielded U-Pb ages up to 4.404 billion years, interpreted to be the age of crystallization, making them the oldest minerals so far dated on Earth. In addition, the oxygen isotopic compositions of some of these zircons have been interpreted to indicate that more than 4.4 billion years ago there was already water on the surface of the Earth. This interpretation is supported by additional trace element data, but is also the subject of debate. In 2015, ""remains of biotic life"" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in the Jack Hills of Western Australia. According to one of the researchers,"
"– the Ngadju and Esperance Nyungar claims. The majority of the Great Western Woodlands sits atop the stable geological formation known as the Yilgarn Craton that was formed between 2,400 and 3,700 million years ago. This formation contains some of the oldest mineral deposits ever recorded on the Earth’s surface. The region also has a series of geological intrusions running parallel to the Earth’s surface, known as the greenstone belts. These formations house large quantities of gold and nickel, and also provide very rich and mineralised soils, which have led in part to the evolution of locally distinctive flora. A"
"Supracrustal rock Supracrustal rocks (Supra (Latin for ""above"")) are rocks that were deposited on the existing basement rocks of the crust, hence the name. They may be further metamorphosed from both sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The oldest minerals on Earth are detrital zircon grains from the Yilgarn Craton in the Mesoarchaean (3.2–2.8 Ga) Jack Hills, Western Australia dated to up to 4.4 Ga, meaning that granitic continental crust and probably supracrustal rocks formed during the Hadean, within 200 million years of Earth accretion. Most Hadean rocks were probably recycled into the mantle before the end of the eon, however, and"
"this reconstruction. The core of Kenorland, the Baltic/Fennoscandian Shield, traces its origins back to over 3.1 Ga. The Yilgarn Craton (present-day Western Australia) contains zircon crystals in its crust that date back to 4.4 Ga. Kenorland was formed around 2.72 billion years ago (2.72 Ga) as a result of a series of accretion events and the formation of new continental crust. The accretion events are recorded in the greenstone belts of the Yilgarn Craton as metamorphosed basalt belts and granitic domes accreted around the high grade metamorphic core of the Western Gneiss Terrane, which includes elements of up to 3.2"
"Hadean zircon Hadean zircon is the oldest-surviving crustal material from the Earth's earliest geological time period, the Hadean eon, about 4 billion years ago. Zircon is a mineral that is commonly used for radiometric dating because it is highly resistant to chemical changes and appears in the form of small crystals or grains in most igneous and metamorphic host rocks. Hadean zircon has very low abundance around the globe because of recycling of material by plate tectonics. When the rock at the surface is buried deep in the Earth it is heated and can recrystallise or melt. In the Jack"
"occurred with the appearance of the oldest rock at 4.031 ± 0.003 Gya. The term ""Zirconian"" is derived from the mineral zircon, since it is the only substance that is preserved from this early period. An alternative proposal for the name of this era is ""Jack Hillsian Era"". The first 196 million years after the formation of Earth, left no solid trace, except for the formation of the Moon. This time is termed the Chaotian Era. The first datable solid Earth minerals, zircons, mark the start of the Zirconian Era. The oldest known crystal could be dated to 4,404 ±"
"water by the time the Australian zircons formed. One of the oldest Martian meteorites found on Earth, ALH84001, discovered in the Allan Hills of Antarctica, has been reported to have crystallized from molten rock 4.091 billion years ago. The Genesis Rock (Lunar sample 15415), obtained from the Moon by astronauts during Apollo 15 mission, has been dated at 4.08 billion years. During Apollo 16, older rocks, including Lunar sample 67215, dated at 4.46 billion years, were brought back. Meteorites can be even older with NWA 11119 being dated to 4.5648 ± 0.0003 billion years. Oldest dated rocks The oldest dated"
"such pre-4.0 Ga mineral inclusions, the only traces from the earliest rock formation on Earth, are rare. The Acasta orthogneisses of the Slave Craton, Canada, are regarded to be the oldest rocks on Earth, dated to 4.06 Ga, include protoliths such as TTGs, amphibolite, gabbro, granite, and diorite. It is possible that such early Hadean TTGs were a source of phosphorus for the first oceans and therefore contributed nutrients to the first abiogenic steps of life on Earth. No Hadean-aged zircon grains have been identified in the Nuvvuagittuq Supracrustal Belt in northern Quebec, but amphibolites have been dated to 4.28"
"8 Mya. It was in metasedimentary rock on Erawandoo Hills in the Jack Hills of Narryer Gneiss Terrane in Western Australia. The 4.4 Gya is the limiting age, and zircons this old are very rare. But from 4.2 to 4.1 Gya they are already common. The bulk of the zircons in Narryer Gneiss Terrane date much later, from 3.75 to 3.5 Gya. The zircons are limited only to Archean cratons. In the Yilgarn craton quartzites of Southern Cross Terrane also contains zircons with an age of 4.35-3.13 Gya). Possibly the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt of the Superior Craton is of Zirconian"
"to Jakarta in Indonesia, than to the Australian national capital in Canberra. Western Australia's geology has components that are considered some of the oldest and most recent. The oldest minerals of the world have been discovered at the Jack Hills, and the Yilgarn Craton of the Great Western Plateau, which occupies most of the state, has been above sea level for over 2.5 billion years, giving it some of the oldest soils of the planet. The European settlement of Western Australia started in 1827, at Albany, but the state was only established as an administrative colony in 1829, and much"
"inclusion in the Register. Jack Hills The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: Hadean zircons that formed around 4.39 billion years ago. These zircons have enabled ground-breaking research into the conditions on earth in the Hadean eon. In 2015, ""remains of biotic life"" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks there. According to one of the researchers, ""If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe."" They are located on the"
"have been radiometrically dated at 4.4 billion years old, although the majority of zircon crystals are about 3.6-3.8 billion years old. The Narryer Gneiss Terrane is adjacent to the northernmost margin of the Yilgarn Craton and is abutted on the north by the Gascoyne Complex metasedimentary and metagranite orogen. The Narryer Gneiss Terrane also includes parts of the Yarlarweelor Gneiss which abuts to Nabberu Basin metamorphic sequences of the Bryah-Padbury Basins, where it is present as discontinuous slivers of metamorphic rocks, pelites, metaconglomerates and gneisses caught up within regional strike-slip oblique thrust faults. The Narryer Gneiss in this far-eastern region"
"but generally considered to be in excess of 3.6 Ga (billion years). Detrital zircons with ages greater than 4 billion years old have been found in these rocks, and a 4,404 +/-8 million year old zircon was found at Erawandoo Hill; this is the oldest dated material originating on Earth; the date is in the Cryptic era of the Hadean eon. They were found within a unit of the supracrustal sequence, a metamorphosed conglomerate considered to have an age ~3.0 Ga. Given the detrital nature of the rock unit, the zircons are sourced from pre-existing rocks which were then weathered"
"including the system considered the most accurate and least affected by environment, uranium–lead dating of zircons. As no older rocks could be found, it was generally assumed that the Earth had remained molten until this date, which defined the boundary between the earlier Hadean and later Archean eons. Nonetheless, more recently, in 1999, the oldest known rock on Earth was dated to be 4.031 ± 0.003 billion years old, and is part of the Acasta Gneiss of the Slave Craton in northwestern Canada. Older rocks could be found, however, in the form of asteroid fragments that fall to Earth as"
"as giant impacts, including the Moon-forming impact, which resulted in a series of magma oceans and episodes of core formation. After formation of the core, delivery of meteoritic or cometary material in a ""late veneer"" may have delivered water and other volatile compounds to the Earth. Although little crustal material from this period survives, the oldest dated specimen is a zircon mineral of 4.404 ± 0.008 Ga enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia. The earliest supracrustals (such as the Isua greenstone belt) date from the latter half of"
"which is similar to the modern tectonic dynamics. Relatively low crystallisation temperature and some are enriched in heavy oxygen, contain inclusion similar to modern crustal processes and show evidence of silicate differentiation at ~4.5 Ga. Early terrestrial hydrosphere, early felsic crust in which granitoids were produced and later weathered under high water activity conditions and even the possible existence of plate boundary interactions. Hadean zircon Hadean zircon is the oldest-surviving crustal material from the Earth's earliest geological time period, the Hadean eon, about 4 billion years ago. Zircon is a mineral that is commonly used for radiometric dating because it"
"bulk of the continental crust is much older. The oldest continental crustal rocks on Earth have ages in the range from about 3.7 to 4.28 billion years and have been found in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in Western Australia, in the Acasta Gneiss in the Northwest Territories on the Canadian Shield, and on other cratonic regions such as those on the Fennoscandian Shield. Some zircon with age as great as 4.3 billion years has been found in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane. The average age of the current Earth's continental crust has been estimated to be about 2.0 billion years. Most"
"Pilbara Craton The Pilbara Craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere located in Pilbara, Western Australia. The Pilbara Craton is one of only two pristine Archaean 3.6-2.7 Ga (billion years ago) crusts identified on the Earth, along with the Kaapvaal Craton in South Africa. Both locations may have once been part of the Vaalbara Supercontinent or the continent of Ur. In May 2017, evidence of the earliest known life on land may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite and other related mineral deposits (often found around hot springs and geysers) uncovered in the Pilbara Craton. The"
"Hills, Australia, scientists obtained a relatively comprehensive record of Hadean zircon crystals in contrast to other locations. The Jack Hills rocks are from the Archean eon, about 3.6 billion years old. However, the zircon crystals there are older than the rocks that contain them. Many investigations have been carried out to find the absolute age and properties of zircon, for example the isotope ratios, mineral inclusions, and geochemistry of zircon. The characteristics of Hadean zircons show early Earth history and the mechanism of Earth's processes in the past. Based on the properties of these zircon crystals, many different geological models"
"Australian Jack Hills returned an age of 4.404 billion years, interpreted to be the age of crystallization. These zircons also show another interesting feature; their oxygen isotopic composition has been interpreted to indicate that more than 4.4 billion years ago there was already water on the surface of the Earth. The importance and accuracy of these interpretations is currently the subject of scientific debate. It may be that the oxygen isotopes and other compositional features (the rare-earth elements) record more recent hydrothermal alteration of the zircons rather than the composition of the magma at the time of their original crystallization."
"Jack Hills The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: Hadean zircons that formed around 4.39 billion years ago. These zircons have enabled ground-breaking research into the conditions on earth in the Hadean eon. In 2015, ""remains of biotic life"" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks there. According to one of the researchers, ""If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe."" They are located on the border of the Shire"
"4.2 Ga granite magma, which indicates that crustal reworking was an important process in the Eoarchean. Zircons from this granite protolith shows similarities to zircons from the Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia, and may be evidence for continental crust forming in the Hadean Eon. However, it is suggested that these two cratons have never been directly connected, which may indicate that the early Hadean crust was primarily continental granite. Trace isotope analysis show that these early granite rocks originated from a highly depleted mantle and suggest that large scale differentiation occurred before ~4.0 Ga. These zircon crystals may be important"
"lineages made it onto land much earlier, modern land ecosystems only appeared in the Late Devonian, about . In May 2017, evidence of the earliest known life on land may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite and other related mineral deposits (often found around hot springs and geysers) uncovered in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. Oxygen is a potent oxidant whose accumulation in terrestrial atmosphere resulted from the development of photosynthesis over 3 Ga, in cyanobacteria (blue-green algae), which were the most primitive oxygenic photosynthetic organisms. Brown algae accumulate inorganic mineral antioxidants such as rubidium, vanadium, zinc, iron, copper,"
"rocks dated at approximately 4 to 2.7 billion years old, making these rocks among the oldest on Earth. The Stillwater igneous complex within the mountains is the location of the largest known deposits of platinum and chromium and the second largest deposits of nickel found in the United States. Older ages (4-3.2 billion years) are found in zircon crystals in meta-sedimentary rocks. The most abundant rocks in the Beartooths (gneiss, amphibolites and granites, as well as the Stillwater Complex) are 2.9-2.7 billion years old. Huge expansive plateaus are found at altitudes in excess of with over 25 peaks exceeding ."
"years ago, as claimed by some researchers. ""Remains of life"" have been found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. Evidence of biogenic graphite, and possibly stromatolites, were discovered in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks in southwestern Greenland. In May 2017, evidence of life on land may have been found in 3.48 billion-year-old geyserite which is often found around hot springs and geysers, and other related mineral deposits, uncovered in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. This complements the November 2013 publication that microbial mat fossils had been found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone in Western Australia. In November 2017, a study"
"geological crust started to solidify following the molten Hadean Eon. In May 2017 scientists found possible evidence of early life on land in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite and other related mineral deposits (often found around hot springs and geysers) uncovered in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia. However, a number of discoveries suggest that life may have appeared on Earth even earlier. , microfossils, or fossilised microorganisms, within hydrothermal-vent precipitates dated from 3.77 to 4.28 billion years old found in Quebec, Canada may be the oldest record of life on Earth, suggesting life started soon after ocean formation 4.4 billion years ago."
"Narryer Gneiss Terrane The Narryer Gneiss Terrane is a geological complex in Western Australia that is composed of a tectonically interleaved and polydeformed mixture of granite, mafic intrusions and metasedimentary rocks in excess of 3.3 billion years old, with the majority of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in excess of 3.6 billion years old. The rocks have experienced multiple metamorphic events at amphibolite or granulite conditions, resulting in often complete destruction of original igneous or sedimentary (protolith) textures. Importantly, it contains the oldest known samples of the Earth's crust: samples of zircon from the Jack Hills portion of the Narryer Gneiss"
"from the disintegration of radioactive elements. Although a few mineral grains are known to be Hadean, the oldest rock formations exposed on the surface of the Earth are Archean. Archean rocks are found in Greenland, Siberia, the Canadian Shield, Montana and Wyoming (exposed parts of the Wyoming Craton), the Baltic Shield, Scotland, India, Brazil, western Australia, and southern Africa. Granitic rocks predominate throughout the crystalline remnants of the surviving Archean crust. Examples include great melt sheets and voluminous plutonic masses of granite, diorite, layered intrusions, anorthosites and monzonites known as sanukitoids. Archean Eon rocks are often heavily metamorphized deep-water sediments,"
"fauna, as some of the soil is essentially fossilised. Much of the groundwater of the Yilgarn is hypersaline, with some being supersaturated in salt. This renders swathes of land barren, with significant salt lakes, and high saline water tables. The origin of this salt is thought to be from precipitation of sea salt carried over the Australian landmass for the past several dozen million years, and the high evaporation rate leaving the salt behind. The greenstone belts of the Yilgarn Craton include: The Yilgarn Craton is Australia's premier mineral province. It attracts more than half of Australia's minerals exploration expenditure,"
"age, its proposed age of 4.28 Gya is however still controversial. The end of the Zirconian Era is at 4.031 Gya, marked by the Acasta Gneiss of Slave craton and it is likely that its protolith is older. In 2006, a single zircon crystal in Acasta Gneiss was dated to 4.2 Gya Zirconian The Zirconian is the second Era within the Hadean Eon in a proposed revision of the Precambrian time scale. It lasted 373 million years from the end of the Chaotian Era to the beginning of Eoarchean Era . The Zirconian follows the Chaotian Era and its beginning"