Geology

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Geology
photo of Andrew Alden

Andrew's Geology Blog

By Andrew Alden, About.com Guide to Geology since 1997

New Record Ancient Crust: 4.28 Ga

Thursday September 25, 2008
oldest rockCanada has always had a reputation for ancient rocks, but the September 26 Science puts a new jewel in Canada's crown in a paper reporting a bedrock outcrop that dates back to approximately 4.28 billion years, well into the Hadean eon (or, for purists, the Eoarchean Era). The previous oldest known rock, from about 4.03 Ga, was the Acasta gneiss, also Canadian.

The locality is in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt by Porpoise Cove, way up by the north tip of Labrador on Hudson Bay. This photo, by coauthor Don Francis of McGill University, shows the look of the countryside there, scraped clean and flat by generations of glaciers. It's a geologist's dreamland. The Saskatoon StarPhoenix reports that the local Inuit tribe that oversees the site is pondering its potential for tourism. I know I'd go see it.

Shake sits in the Nuvvuagittuq — Courtesy Don Francis

Comments

No comments yet. Leave a Comment

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Discuss

Community Forum

Explore Geology

About.com Special Features

Geology

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. Geology

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.