” Studying the composition of oxygen isotopes in these zircon crystals revealed a top-down process starting with the melting of rocks near the surface and advancing deeper, constant with the geological effect of giant meteorite effects.
” Our research study supplies the very first strong evidence that the processes that eventually formed the continents began with giant meteorite effects, similar to those responsible for the termination of the dinosaurs, but which occurred billions of years earlier.”
Understanding the development and ongoing advancement of the Earths continents is crucial according to Dr. Johnson because these landmasses host the bulk of Earths biomass, all humans, and almost all of the worlds essential mineral deposits.
” Not least, the continents host important metals such as tin, lithium, and nickel, commodities that are necessary to the emerging green innovations required to satisfy our obligation to reduce climate change,” Dr. Johnson stated.
” These mineral deposits are completion result of a procedure referred to as crustal distinction, which started with the development of the earliest landmasses, of which the Pilbara Craton is simply among numerous.
” Data related to other locations of ancient continental crust on Earth appears to reveal patterns similar to those acknowledged in Western Australia. We wish to test our findings on these ancient rocks to see if, as we suspect, our model is more commonly applicable.”
Reference: “Giant impacts and the origin and evolution of continents” by Tim E. Johnson, Christopher L. Kirkland, Yongjun Lu, R. Hugh Smithies, Michael Brown and Michael I. H. Hartnady, 10 August 2022, Nature.DOI: 10.1038/ s41586-022-04956-y.
Dr. Johnson is connected with The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), Curtins flagship earth sciences research institute.
Evidence that Earths continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts has been uncovered in brand-new research study.
New research study has uncovered the greatest evidence yet that Earths continents were formed by giant meteorite effects, which were particularly typical throughout the first billion years approximately of our planets four-and-a-half-billion-year history. Curtin University researchers performed the research study, which was released on August 10, 2022, in the journal Nature.
According to Dr. Tim Johnson, from Curtins School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the idea that the continents originally formed at sites of giant meteorite impacts has been around for decades. However, previously there was little solid evidence to support the theory.
” By analyzing tiny crystals of the mineral zircon in rocks from the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, which represents Earths best-preserved remnant of ancient crust, we discovered proof of these huge meteorite impacts,” Dr. Johnson stated.