4-Billion-Year-Old Crystals Offer Clues to When Plate Tectonics Began, Setting Stage for Life on Earth - SciTechDaily

Zircons (and the Secrets They Hold) Are Forever Scientists have long known that plate tectonics, the movement of distinct, rigid plates that make up the Earth’s crust, formed continents and mountains and was crucial to the evolution of the planet’s surface fr…

Artists illustration of uninhabitable conditions during the Hadean, an early geologic eon of Earth history. Credit: Alec Brenner Zircons (and the Secrets They Hold) Are Forever Scientists have long… [+5151 chars]

full article...