Confirmed: Earth's Oldest Rock In Australia

SpamSlapper writes "Australia's ABC Science reports that ancient zircon crystals discovered in Western Australia have been positively dated to 4.374 billion years, confirming their place as the oldest rock ever found on Earth, according to a new study. The research reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, means Earth began forming a crust far sooner than previously thought, following the giant impact event which created the Earth-Moon system 4.5 billion years ago."

Comments

Unfortunately

[Greyfox]

They had to kill the rock to confirm its age.

Re:Lots of Iron around there

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. The 'Oldest Rock' they're talking about are actually individual mineral grains in a metamorphic rock that used to be sandstone. The zircon sand grains predate the rock they're in by about a billion years. The iron deposts you're talking about come from the same perioid of geologic time as the sandstone.

Did they finally date them?

[dutchwhizzman]

I'm sure AC/DC will be delighted with their new title of oldest rock on the planet.