New research suggests that the very oldest pieces of rock on Earth—zircon crystals—are likely to have formed in the craters left by violent asteroid impacts that peppered our nascent planet, rather than via plate tectonics ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 28, 2016
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How do you take the temperature of the Earth billions of years ago? The answer lies in the rocks.
Earth Sciences
Nov 7, 2014
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Conditions on Earth for the first 500 million years after it formed may have been surprisingly similar to the present day, complete with oceans, continents and active crustal plates.
Earth Sciences
Sep 15, 2014
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(Phys.org) -- We're familiar with the theory that the Earth's crust is composed of tectonic plates that move, sometimes dramatically to create earthquakes and tsunamis - but until recently, nobody knew how long this movement ...
Earth Sciences
May 31, 2012
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The geologic faults responsible for the rise of the eastern Andes mountains in Colombia became active 25 million years ago—18 million years before the previously accepted start date for the Andes’ rise, ...
Earth Sciences
May 15, 2009
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Zircon crystals, like a time capsule, can preserve traces of life hundreds of millions of years old in the form of biogenic carbon. Using new methods, geoscientists at Heidelberg University have succeeded in tracing very ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 6, 2023
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7
Severe environmental crises led to a series of large-scale extinction events in the Jurassic period 178-186 million years (myr) ago. The turmoil has been ascribed to the abundant release of volcanic gases, but the temporal ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 31, 2022
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Using zircon crystals, researchers have discovered the route of a massive ancient river that could help find new reservoirs of fossil fuels and suggest how modern rivers might change over time.
Earth Sciences
Feb 26, 2020
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174
A lead-free ceramic that could be used in applications ranging from optical sensors and switches to creams for protecting against ultraviolet (UV) light has been developed by A*STAR researchers.
General Physics
Feb 4, 2019
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7
Zircon crystals in igneous rocks must be carefully examined and not relied upon solely to predict future volcanic eruptions and other tectonic events, QUT researchers have shown.
Earth Sciences
Oct 23, 2017
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