Scientists have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth

In Canada, discovered the earth’s crust the formation of the planet.

Rocks in the North-West of Canada contain traces of the primary crust of the Earth that occurred 4 billion years ago.

Scientists believed that the Earth did not have any traces of the initial crust that covered the planet after its formation 4.5 billion years ago, because it was either destroyed or shipped back into the depths of the planet. However, the crust still managed to find.

Richard Carlson of the Carnegie institution for science in Washington and his colleague Jonathan O’neill of the University of Ottawa, drew attention to the fact that the primary crust of the Earth had to have a special share ratio for isotopes of neodymium. They, in turn, are created by the radioactive decay of another element, samarium.

“Finding remnants of this ancient crust was hard work, but the new approach makes it possible to detect the presence of truly ancient crust, not just “really old rocks,” said Carlson.

The researchers analyzed the concentration of isotopes of neodymium in the alleged oldest rocks of the Earth’s crust, which lies in the territory of Canada, Greenland, Australia, South Africa and other parts of the world. It turned out that in the North-West of Canada are deposits of granite and other rocks, the proportion of neodymium in which correspond to the values typical for the initial crust of the planet.

paradox