Oldest rock
Encyclopedia
The oldest dated rocks on Earth, as an aggregate of minerals that have not been subsequently melted or disaggregated by erosion, are from the Archean
Archean
The Archean , also spelled Archeozoic or Archæozoic) is a geologic eon before the Paleoproterozoic Era of the Proterozoic Eon, before 2.5 Ga ago. Instead of being based on stratigraphy, this date is defined chronometrically...

 Eon. Such rocks are exposed on the surface in very few places.

There is some controversy about the oldest rocks based on the oldest dated mineral
Mineral
A mineral is a naturally occurring solid chemical substance formed through biogeochemical processes, having characteristic chemical composition, highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties. By comparison, a rock is an aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids and does not...

 zircon
Zircon
Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates. Its chemical name is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is ZrSiO4. A common empirical formula showing some of the range of substitution in zircon is 1–x4x–y...

. Some of the oldest surface rock can be found in the Canadian Shield
Canadian Shield
The Canadian Shield, also called the Laurentian Plateau, or Bouclier Canadien , is a vast geological shield covered by a thin layer of soil that forms the nucleus of the North American or Laurentia craton. It is an area mostly composed of igneous rock which relates to its long volcanic history...

, Australia, Africa and in other more specific places around the world. The ages of these felsic
Felsic
The word "felsic" is a term used in geology to refer to silicate minerals, magma, and rocks which are enriched in the lighter elements such as silicon, oxygen, aluminium, sodium, and potassium....

 rocks are generally between 2.5 and 3.8 billion years. The approximate ages have a margin of error of millions of years. In 1999, the oldest known rock on Earth was dated to 4.031 ± 0.003 billion years, and is part of the Acasta Gneiss
Acasta Gneiss
The Acasta Gneiss is a rock outcrop of Hadean tonalite gneiss in the Slave craton in Northwest Territories, Canada. Located on an island about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, the Acasta River rock deposit, believed to be 4.031 to 3.58 billion years old, is the oldest known intact crustal...

 of the Slave craton
Slave craton
The Slave craton is a Canadian geological formation located in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This craton is approximately in size and forms part of the Canadian Shield. It is dominated by ca. 2.73-2.63 Ga greenstones and turbidite sequences and ca. 2.72-2.58 Ga plutonic rock, with large...

 in northwestern Canada. Since 2008, the oldest rock on earth has been discovered by McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt
Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt
Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, also called the Porpoise Cove greenstone belt, is a greenstone belt on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. With an age of about 4.28 billion years, it is the only portion of the Earth's crust known to have formed during the Hadean...

 on the coast of Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...

, in northern Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, and is dated from 3.8 to 4.28 billion years old.

Oldest terrestrial material

The oldest material of terrestrial origin that has been dated
Radiometric dating
Radiometric dating is a technique used to date materials such as rocks, usually based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates...

 is a zircon
Zircon
Zircon is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates. Its chemical name is zirconium silicate and its corresponding chemical formula is ZrSiO4. A common empirical formula showing some of the range of substitution in zircon is 1–x4x–y...

 mineral of 4,404 ± 8 Ma enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 conglomerate in the Jack Hills
Jack Hills
The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: zircons that formed around 4.4 billion years ago...

 of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane
Narryer Gneiss Terrane
The Narryer Gneiss Terrane is a geological complex in Western Australia that is composed of a tectonically interleaved and polydeformed mixture of granite, mafic intrusions and metasedimentary rocks in excess of 3.3 billion years old, with the majority of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane in excess of 3.6...

 of Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...

. The 4,404 ± 8 Ma zircon is a slight outlier, with the oldest consistently-dated zircon falling closer to 4.35 Ga. This zircon is part of a population of zircons within the metamorphosed conglomerate, which is believed to have been deposited about 3060Ma, which is the age of the youngest detrital zircon in the rock.

Earth's oldest rock formation

The oldest rock formation is, depending on the latest research, either part of the Isua Greenstone Belt
Isua greenstone belt
The Isua Greenstone Belt is an Archean greenstone belt in southwestern Greenland. The belt is aged between 3.7 and 3.8 Ga, making it among the oldest rock in the world. The belt contains variably metamorphosed mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks...

, Narryer Gneiss Terrane, or the Acasta Gneiss
Acasta Gneiss
The Acasta Gneiss is a rock outcrop of Hadean tonalite gneiss in the Slave craton in Northwest Territories, Canada. Located on an island about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, the Acasta River rock deposit, believed to be 4.031 to 3.58 billion years old, is the oldest known intact crustal...

. The difficulty in assigning the title to one particular block of gneiss is that the gneisses are all extremely deformed, and the oldest rock may be represented by only one streak of minerals in a mylonite
Mylonite
Mylonite is a fine-grained, compact rock produced by dynamic recrystallization of the constituent minerals resulting in a reduction of the grain size of the rock. It is classified as a metamorphic rock...

, representing a layer of sediment or an old dike
Dike (geology)
A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...

. This may be difficult to find or map; hence the oldest dates yet resolved are as much generated by luck in sampling as by understanding the rocks themselves.

It is thus premature to claim that any of these rocks, or indeed that other formations of early Archaean gneisses, are the oldest formations or rocks on Earth; doubtless new analyses will continue to change our conceptions of the structure and nature of these ancient continental fragments.

Nevertheless, the oldest cratons on Earth include the Kaapvaal craton
Kaapvaal craton
The Kaapvaal craton , along with the Pilbara craton of Western Australia, are the only remaining areas of pristine 3.6-2.5 Ga crust on Earth...

, the Western Gneiss Terrane of the Yilgarn craton
Yilgarn craton
The Yilgarn Craton is a large craton which constitutes the bulk of the Western Australian land mass. It is bounded by a mixture of sedimentary basins and Proterozoic fold and thrust belts...

 (~2.9 - >3.2 Ga), the Pilbara Craton
Pilbara craton
The Pilbara craton , along with the Kaapvaal craton are the only remaining areas of pristine Archaean 3.6-2.7 Ga crust on Earth...

 (~3.4 Ga), and portions of the Canadian Shield (~2.4 - >3.6 Ga). Parts of the poorly studied Dharwar craton
Dharwar craton
The Dharwar craton in South India presents a natural cross-section of late-Archaean continental crust. There are three main structural zones: a root zone of highly heterogeneous petrology and texture , a "channel zone" where evidences of large scale magma ascent can be observed, and a zone of...

 in India are greater than 3.0 Ga. The oldest dated rocks of Baltic Shield
Baltic Shield
The Baltic Shield is located in Fennoscandia , northwest Russia and under the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Shield is defined as the exposed Precambrian northwest segment of the East European Craton...

 are 3.5 Ga old.

Oldest rock on Earth

The Acasta Gneiss
Acasta Gneiss
The Acasta Gneiss is a rock outcrop of Hadean tonalite gneiss in the Slave craton in Northwest Territories, Canada. Located on an island about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, the Acasta River rock deposit, believed to be 4.031 to 3.58 billion years old, is the oldest known intact crustal...

 in the Canadian Shield in the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

, Canada is composed of the Archaean igneous and gneiss
Gneiss
Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks.-Etymology:...

ic cores of ancient mountain chains that have been exposed in a glacial
Glacier
A glacier is a large persistent body of ice that forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. At least 0.1 km² in area and 50 m thick, but often much larger, a glacier slowly deforms and flows due to stresses induced by its weight...

 peneplain
Peneplain
A peneplain is a low-relief plain representing the final stage of fluvial erosion during times of extended tectonic stability. The existence of peneplains, and peneplanation as a geomorphological process, is not without controversy, due to a lack of contemporary examples and uncertainty in...

. Analyses of zircons from a felsic orthogneiss with presumed granitic protolith returned an age of 4.031 ± 0.003 Ga.

On September 25, 2008, researchers from McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

, Carnegie Institution for Science
Carnegie Institution for Science
The Carnegie Institution for Science is an organization in the United States established to support scientific research....

 and UQAM announced that a rock formation, the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt
Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt
Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, also called the Porpoise Cove greenstone belt, is a greenstone belt on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in northern Quebec, Canada. With an age of about 4.28 billion years, it is the only portion of the Earth's crust known to have formed during the Hadean...

, exposed on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...

 in northern Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

 had a Sm-Nd age for extraction from the mantle of 4.28 billion years. However, it is argued that the actual age of formation of this rock, as opposed to the extraction of its magma from the mantle, is likely closer to 3.8 billion years, according to Simon Wilde of the Institute for Geoscience Research in Australia.

Recent research

The zircons from the Western Australian Jack Hills
Jack Hills
The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: zircons that formed around 4.4 billion years ago...

 returned an age of 4.404 billion years, interpreted to be the age of crystallization. These zircons also show another interesting feature; their oxygen isotopic composition has been interpreted to indicate that more than 4.4 billion years ago there was already water on the surface of the Earth. The importance and accuracy of these interpretations is currently the subject of scientific debate. It may be that the oxygen isotopes, and other compositional features (the rare earth element
Rare earth element
As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a set of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, specifically the fifteen lanthanides plus scandium and yttrium...

s), record more recent hydrothermal alteration of the zircons rather than the composition of the magma at the time of their original crystallization. In a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a team of scientists suggest that rocky continents and liquid water existed at least 4.3 billion years ago and were subjected to heavy weathering by an acrid climate. Using an ion microprobe to analyze isotope ratios of the element lithium in zircons from the Jack Hills in Western Australia, and comparing these chemical fingerprints to lithium compositions in zircons from continental crust and primitive rocks similar to the Earth's mantle, they found evidence that the young planet already had the beginnings of continents, relatively cool temperatures and liquid water by the time the Australian zircons formed.

Non-terrestrial rocks

The Genesis Rock
Genesis Rock
The Genesis Rock is a sample of Moon retrieved by Apollo 15 astronauts James Irwin and David Scott in 1971 during their second lunar EVA.Chemical analysis of the Genesis Rock indicated it is an anorthosite, composed mostly of the plagioclase feldspar, anorthite. The rock was formed in the early...

, obtained from the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...

 by astronauts during Apollo 15
Apollo 15
Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the American Apollo space program, the fourth to land on the Moon and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed "J missions", long duration stays on the Moon with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous...

 mission, has been dated at 4.5 billion years. This is one of the oldest known rocks on Earth, even though it originated on the Moon. During Apollo 16
Apollo 16
Young and Duke served as the backup crew for Apollo 13; Mattingly was slated to be the Apollo 13 command module pilot until being pulled from the mission due to his exposure to rubella through Duke.-Backup crew:...

, older rocks were brought back.

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