Rarest rock discovered in India
German geologists Thursday said they have discovered in Indiaone of the world?s rarest rocks, dating back to the birth of the planetwhen the Earth was covered with a hot ocean of melted stone.
The fragment from the primeval crust is only the second ever discovered, said scientists at the University of Muenster.
The ancient magma formed more than 4 billion years ago as theplanet slowly cooled in the Hadean period. The fragment, found inOrissa state, yields answers about what the Earth was like in thosetimes.
The find was detailed in this week?s issue of the journal Nature.
The only other piece of early magma, which was located in Canada, has been dated at 4.3 billion years old.
Normally, old rock is sucked back into the ground by thechurning of tectonic movement and melted again, but the finds show somepieces of the old crust still exist.
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Good morning, youngster!
I sit at my desk looking at a 400 million year old fossil that Sugimoto has photographed, it's a poster from the Osaka show. And now, after this amazing find in India, when I look at this beautiful fossil, I think, "Good morning, youngster!" Thanks for this lovely image and post.