Earth Far Older Than Scientists Thought

“Scientists may have to rewrite theories on what the Earth was like four billion years ago after new research by geochemists at Edinburgh University.

Until now, scientists had believed that the planet was a boiling ocean of magma. But by studying minerals, the researchers have found that the Earth was cool enough to have had water, continents, and even to support life.

…The revelations followed the examination of a crystal which is more than 100 million years older than any sample found before. The tiny grain of the mineral zircon, which was found in western Australia, was dated at 4.4 billion years old…

According to Professor John Valley, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who helped analyse the sample: "This is an astounding thing to find for 4.4 billion years ago…At that time, the Earth's surface should have been a magma ocean…Conventional wisdom could not have predicted a low temperature environment.

‘These results may indicate that the Earth cooled faster than anyone thought.’” bbc.com, January 11 2001

Or maybe that the Earth was a lot older than anyone thought? The evidence is not ‘new’ and there is literally tons of it. If only the scientists would take off their blinkers they would see that the Earth and man himself have been here a lot longer than they had previously thought. Ed.

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Last updated 23/01/2003

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