Climate Change is REAL

Earth's continents emerged 500 million years EARLIER than thought. By Sonia

The planet's crust first appeared around 3.7 billion years ago. The discovery, which was made by a team of scientists led by the University of California, Berkeley, marks an important step in understanding the origins of the Earth's crust.

The first continents to appear would have undergone a process known as weathering, which adds valuable minerals and nutrients to the ocean.

An ancient record of marine minerals is preserved in the rock record. This helps explain how these minerals formed and how they reacted with the sea. Carbonates are rare and can only be found when they are unearthed. Since they are formed by geological processes, they have been altered over time.

This new mineral, barite, is formed when seawater reacts with the barium in hydrothermal events. The timing of the emergence of the continental crust during the ancient Eon has significant implications for the history of geology, chemistry, and life's origin.

The composition of the barite that scientists discovered in Chile is like that of the Earth's original material, which dates back more than 3 billion years. Professor Roerdink and his team tested six different types of barite deposits. The deposits ranged in age from 3 to 3.5 billion years old.

The team calculated the ratio of strontium isotopes in the rock to determine when the continental rock made its way to the ocean. The team concluded that the continents started weathering some 3.7 billion years ago.

It's a huge time for scientists to think about how life started. While it's commonly believed that life started in the deep sea, the biosphere is complex. We don't really know if it is possible that life could have developed at the same time on land, but then that land has to be there.' The emergence of land may help explain why plate tectonics are so prevalent. The process of forming the continental crust is like that of forming the ocean crust, which is chemically different.

The study will be presented at the EGU General Assembly in 2021. An earthquake happens when a plate dips beneath another, or it thrusts another upward. Earthquakes rarely occur in the middle of plates, but they can happen when ancient faults or rifts far below the surface reactivate. These areas are relatively weak compared to the surrounding plate and can easily slip and cause an earthquake.