Ancient crystals hold clues as to why the Earth’s crust broke down like creme brulee 3.8 billion years ago
Image Credit:geology.in
Small crystals discovered in South Africa show that the planet's surface shifted abruptly 3.8 billion years ago.
Image Credit:livescience
These crystals, each no bigger than a grain of sand, demonstrate that about that time, the crust of the Earth began to break down and migrate, a prelude to plate tectonics.
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The discoveries can help address issues regarding putative tectonic plate linkages and provide information about Earth's evolution as a planet
engine of life
In the mantle, the Earth's middle layer, jigsaw pieces of hard crust are currently floating on a hot, sticky ocean of magma
These bits of crust grind against each other, sink beneath each other in subduction zones, and push against each other
forming mountains and ocean ridges, rifting volcanoes, and earthquakes that rock the world on a regular basis
a rapid change
In 2018, Drapon and her colleagues discovered zircon crystals in a bed of green sandstone in the Barberton-Greenstone mountain range in South Africa
Image Credit:worldtodaynews
The researchers discovered 33 zircons with ages ranging from 4.1 billion to 3.3 billion years.