Latest news with #Nuvvuagittuq
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
World's Oldest Rocks Confirmed in Canada
On the shores of Hudson Bay in northeastern Canada lie what could be the world's oldest rocks. A study now suggests they are at least 4.16 billion years old — 160 million years older than any others recorded, and the only piece of Earth's crust known to have survived from the planet's earliest eon. In 2008, researchers reported that these rocks dated back 4.3 billion years, a claim that other scientists contested. Work reported today in Science1 seems to confirm that the rocks, known as the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, are record-breakers. Researchers say the rock formation offers a unique window into early Earth, after the planet cooled from its fiery birth 4.5 billion years ago. [Sign up for Today in Science, a free daily newsletter] 'It's not a matter of 'my rock is older than yours',' says Jonathan O'Neil, a geologist at Ottawa University who leads the research team. 'It's just that this is a unique opportunity to understand what was going on during that time.' The 'oldest rocks' label has sometimes backfired. In the past few years, other teams have chiselled many samples out of the Nuvvuagittuq belt, leaving the landscape scarred. Last year, the local Inuit community closed access to the rocks to prevent further despoliation. Only a handful of geological samples in the world date back to 3.8 billion years or older. Of those, the oldest undisputed rocks are found in the Acasta gneiss formation in Canada's Northwest Territories; at 4 billion years old, they mark the boundary between Earth's first geological eon, the Hadean, and the following one, the Archaean. Geologists have also found tiny mineral crystals dating back to the Hadean — such as 4.4-billion-year-old zircon crystals from Western Australia — that have become embedded into newer rock. But there are no known surviving chunks of crust from the Hadean — except, perhaps, the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt. It consists primarily of material that started out as volcanic basalt before undergoing various modifications during Earth's tortured history. In their 2008 work, O'Neil and his colleagues analysed the chemical imprint left by the radioactive decay of the isotope samarium-146 into neodymium-142 to calculate that the Nuvvuagittuq rocks were 4.3 billion years old. (Samarium-146 is a short-lived isotope that was depleted in Earth's first 500 million years, and none was left after about 4 billion years ago.) Other scientists challenged that work, arguing, for instance, that Hadean-age crust had become mixed into younger crust, contaminating the results. For the latest work, O'Neil's team analysed some once-molten rocks that had intruded into the main Nuvvuagittuq rocks like a knife cutting into a cake. By dating the intruded rocks, O'Neil and his colleagues were able to establish a minimum age for the cake itself. They used two radioactive clocks: the decay of samarium-146 into neodymium-142 and that of samarium-147 into neodymium-143. Both yielded ages of around 4.16 billion years for the intruded rocks. 'If you don't agree with this, then you need a very speculative, intricate model to get to the same answer,' says O'Neil. Having both clocks agree on an age — which wasn't the case in the earlier work — strengthens the case for a Hadean age for the rocks, says Bernard Bourdon, a geochemist at the University of Lyon in France. He remains circumspect, though, and says he would like to see additional lines of evidence, involving other radioactive isotope decays. 'I would be happy if these rocks were truly Hadean, but I think we still need to be cautious,' Bourdon says. The paper 'provides a new data set that hopefully can advance this discussion', says Richard Carlson, a geochemist at Carnegie Science in Washington DC who has collaborated with O'Neil in previous work. To Carlson, the bulk of the evidence suggests that the rocks are indeed Hadean. For now, more answers might have to wait. The Pituvik Landholding Corporation in Inukjuak, Canada — the Inuit group that is steward of the land in question — is not currently granting permits for further scientific study, due to the earlier damage by other groups. 'It's unfortunate, but I would do the same,' O'Neil says. This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on June 26, 2025.
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists found what just might be Earth's oldest rocks
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. Researchers say they might have discovered the oldest rocks on Earth. The rocks in question are a belt of swirly, stripe-covered rocks found in the northeastern reaches of Canada. These rocks appear to contain some of the oldest minerals that we've ever catalogued. This outcropping of rocks is known as the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, and new dating analysis of the belt say that it could be as old as 4.16 billion years. That's nearly as old as the estimated age of the Earth itself. And these findings suggest that the belt could be one of the best locations for digging deeper into understanding our planet's earliest years. But researchers haven't come to this conclusion easily. The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt has been under scrutiny for over 15 years, geoscientists told Science Alert. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 By confirming the age of these rocks, and that they might just be the oldest rocks on Earth, we're finally opening the door to new research possibilities. While there are likely other groups of rocks like this to be found elsewhere, the Earth's surface and crust are constantly in motion as tectonic forces meet with the weathering influences above. This creates a unique area for rocks and dirt to move and break down. As such, finding other places like the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt that are full of old and unique minerals is difficult. Places like this where the rocks have managed to survive the breakdown of time are extremely valuable for giving us insight into the past, which could hopefully one day help us determine where life on Earth originated from. The oldest rocks on Earth are especially helpful for scientists, as they contain Hadean minerals, which are minerals from Earth's first geological eon. This particular eon spans from the formation of Earth to just over 4 billion years ago. But dating the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt has been difficult because past attempts to date it returned inconsistent results, ranging from 2.7 billion years to 4.3 billion years. For this new study, which is published in Science, the researchers used two dating measurements on a type of rock known as metagabbro. Both tests returned the same results, suggesting that the researchers were on the right track. While they want to dive deeper into the analysis itself, the researchers say the minimum age of the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt is 4.16 billion years. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Rocks in Canada's Quebec province found to be the oldest on Earth
By Will Dunham (Reuters) -Along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Canada's northeastern province of Quebec, near the Inuit municipality of Inukjuak, resides a belt of volcanic rock that displays a blend of dark and light green colors, with flecks of pink and black. New testing shows that these are Earth's oldest-known rocks. Two different testing methods found that rocks from an area called the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec date to 4.16 billion years ago, a time known as the Hadean eon. The eon is named after the ancient Greek god of the underworld, Hades, owing to the hellish landscape thought to have existed then on Earth. The research indicates that the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt harbors surviving fragments of Earth's oldest crust, the planet's outermost solid shell. The Nuvvuagittuq rocks are mainly metamorphosed volcanic rocks of basaltic composition. Metamorphosed rock is a kind that has been changed by heat and pressure over time. Basalt is a common type of volcanic rock. The rocks tested in the new study were called intrusions. That means they formed when magma - molten rock - penetrated existing rock layers and then cooled and solidified underground. The researchers applied two dating methods based on an analysis of the radioactive decay of the elements samarium and neodymium contained in them. Both produced the same conclusion - that the rocks were 4.16 billion years old. Future chemical analyses of these rocks could provide insight into Earth's conditions during the Hadean, a time shrouded in mystery because of the paucity of physical remains. "These rocks and the Nuvvuagittuq belt being the only rock record from the Hadean, they offer a unique window into our planet's earliest time to better understand how the first crust formed on Earth and what were the geodynamic processes involved," said University of Ottawa geology professor Jonathan O'Neil, who led the study published on Thursday in the journal Science. The rocks may have formed when rain fell on molten rock, cooling and solidifying it. That rain would have been composed of water evaporated from Earth's primordial seas. "Since some of these rocks were also formed from precipitation from the ancient seawater, they can shed light on the first oceans' composition, temperatures and help establish the environment where life could have begun on Earth," O'Neil said. Until now, the oldest-known rocks were ones dating to about 4.03 billion years ago from Canada's Northwest Territories, O'Neil said. While the Nuvvuagittuq samples are now the oldest-known rocks, tiny crystals of the mineral zircon from western Australia have been dated to 4.4 billion years old. The Hadean ran from Earth's formation roughly 4.5 billion years ago until 4.03 billion years ago. Early during this eon, a huge collision occurred that is believed to have resulted in the formation of the moon. But by the time the Nuvvuagittuq rocks formed, Earth had begun to become a more recognizable place. "The Earth was certainly not a big ball of molten lava during the entire Hadean eon, as its name would suggest. By nearly 4.4 billion years ago, a rocky crust already existed on Earth, likely mostly basaltic and covered with shallow and warmer oceans. An atmosphere was present, but different than the present-day atmosphere," O'Neil said. There had been some controversy over the age of Nuvvuagittuq rocks. As reported in a study published in 2008, previous tests on samples from the volcanic rock layers that contained the intrusions yielded conflicting dates - one giving an age of 4.3 billion years and another giving a younger age of 3.3 to 3.8 billion years. O'Neil said the discrepancy may have been because the method that produced the conclusion of a younger age was sensitive to thermal events that have occurred since the rock formed, skewing the finding. The new study, with two testing methods producing harmonious conclusions on the age of the intrusion rocks, provides a minimum age for the volcanic rocks that contain these intrusions, O'Neil added. "The intrusion would be 4.16 billion years old, and because the volcanic rocks must be older, their best age would be 4.3 billion years old, as supported by the 2008 study," O'Neil said.
The Independent
27-06-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Rock discovery offers fresh insights into planet's earliest history
A new study has identified rocks in Canada's Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt as approximately 4.16 billion years old, potentially making them the oldest rocks on Earth. This research resolves a long-standing scientific debate regarding the precise age of these streaked grey stones, bridging previous estimates of 4.3 billion and 3.8 billion years. Scientists employed two established dating techniques, which measure the decay of radioactive elements, to arrive at the refined age. The discovery significantly contributes to understanding Earth's earliest formation, offering insights into the planet's primordial state and the origins of life. The ancient rock formation is located on tribal Inukjuak lands, and the local Inuit community has restricted sampling due to past damage, seeking to collaborate on establishing a provincial park for protection and research.
BBC News
27-06-2025
- Science
- BBC News
Oldest rocks in the world are in Canada scientists say
Scientists think they have found the oldest rocks on ancient rocks were found in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, in Quebec in Canada, and for the last two decades scientists have been studying they hadn't been able to agree on an accurate age for the rocks, until teams using two different dating methods had produced different ages for the rocks: 4.3 billion and 3.8 billion years the latest study says the rocks are actually 4.16 billion years old! How did scientists test the old rocks? The scientists used both the techniques from previous tests, but focussed in on just one type of rock that made up the stripy stones. This type of stone is called metagabbro and is a rock that formed under huge heat and pressure inside the planet's crust billions of years tests brought back the same result this time - the rock was 4.16 billion years rocks are from one of the earliest periods on Earth, known as the Hadeon Earth was formed around 4.5 billion years ago and rocks from this time are an incredibly rare, as the movement of the Earth's tectonic plates mean that many have been melted and O'Neil, who led the study in the Science journal said the rocks give a "unique window into our planet's earliest time to better understand how the first crust formed on Earth".He added that because some were formed through ancient seawater, they shed light on the first oceans and "help established the environment where life could have begun on Earth."
