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Article: World's oldest object offers insight into the Earth 4.6 billion years ago
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- January 11, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2001 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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SCIENTISTS HAVE turned to crystal-gazing to see a vision of the
Earth as it was just after its creation more than four billion years
ago.
A microscopic crystal of zircon - an unusually long-lived mineral -
has provided geologists with a rare insight into the state of the
world immediately after its creation. Chemical analysis of the
crystal, which was formed about 4.4 billion years ago and is the
oldest identifiable object on Earth, has overturned conventional
views about how the planet formed.
The accepted view of creation is that the Earth formed about 4.5
billion to 4.6 billion years ago from debris left over after the
birth of the Solar System and remained little more that a ball of ...