Pegasus Research Consortium

Breaking News => Breaking News => Topic started by: rdunk on February 24, 2014, 04:45:54 PM

Title: Confirmed: Oldest fragment of early Earth is 4.4 billion years old
Post by: rdunk on February 24, 2014, 04:45:54 PM

Well, according to this report, the Earth does have a little age on it. I suppose that with the Earth at 4.4 billion years old, and the "known" universe at 27.4 billion years old, we could postulate that the Earth was formed about 23 billion years into the life of this universe!?? :)

Fox News
By Becky OskinPublished February 24, 2014 / LiveScience

Well, scientists just took one of geology's biggest controversies and shrunk it down to atomic size. By zapping single atoms of lead in a tiny zircon crystal from Australia, researchers have confirmed the crystal is the oldest rock fragment ever found on Earth 4.375 billion years old, plus or minus 6 million years.

Confirmation of the zircon age holds enormous implications for models of early Earth.

"We've proved that the chemical record inside these zircons is trustworthy," said John Valley, lead study author and a geochemist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The findings were published yesterday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/02/24/confirmed-oldest-fragment-early-earth-is-44-billion-years-old/?intcmp=features