New model suggests lost continents for early Earth

A new radioactivity model of Earth's ancient rocks calls into question current models for the formation of Earth's continental crust, suggesting continents may have risen out of the sea much earlier than previously thought ...

Deep biosphere microbes expand the chemical signatures of life

Search for signs of ancient microbial life in the geological record is challenging due to degradation of the primary organic material. Therefore, proof of biogenic origin often relies on chemical signatures that microorganisms ...

How the Pilbara was formed more than 3 billion years ago

The remote Pilbara region of northern Western Australia is one of Earth's oldest blocks of continental crust, and we now think we know how it formed, as explained in research published today in Nature Geoscience.

Fracture swarms on Mars

These striking features on Mars were caused by the planet's crust stretching apart in response to ancient volcanic activity.

Dawn finds possible ancient ocean remnants at Ceres

Minerals containing water are widespread on Ceres, suggesting the dwarf planet may have had a global ocean in the past. What became of that ocean? Could Ceres still have liquid today? Two new studies from NASA's Dawn mission ...

Earth's first example of recycling—its own crust

Rock samples from northeastern Canada retain chemical signals that help explain what Earth's crust was like more than 4 billion years ago, reveals new work from Carnegie's Richard Carlson and Jonathan O'Neil of the University ...

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