Hadean zircons reveal crust recycling and continent formation more than 4 billion years ago

Parts of ancient Earth may have formed continents and recycled crust through subduction far earlier than previously thought.
La Brújula Verde

Earth’s First Continents Emerged in an Inferno of Fire and Water, Making the Planet Habitable Hundreds of Millions of Years Earlier Than the Fossil Record Indicates

A comprehensive examination of the oldest minerals on the planet, microscopic grains of zircon more resistant than diamond, ...
EurekAlert!

Uncovering the rock record of Earth’s earliest continental crust

An artistic reconstruction of Earth during the Hadean eon (~4.5 billion years ago). Intense volcanic activity, heat from accretion, and frequent impacts kept the young Earth in a molten state. This ...
SpaceNews

Earliest Geochemical Evidence Of Plate Tectonics Found In A 3.8-billion-year-old Crystal

A handful of ancient zircon crystals found in South Africa hold the oldest evidence of subduction, a key element of plate tectonics, according to a new study published today in AGU Advances, AGU’s ...