Understanding the formation and ongoing evolution of the continents is considered important, given that they host the vast majority of Earth’s biomass, all humans, and nearly all of the planet’s important minerals.
Earth is the only planet known to have continents, although how they formed is unclear. Scientists estimate that the Earth’s continents were formed from the huge meteor falls during the first billion of the approximately 4.5 billion years of our planet’s existence, saying they found in the subsoil of Australia new evidence for this theory.
The researchers from Australia, China and the USA, led by Dr. Tim Johnson of the School of Geosciences and Planetary Sciences of the Australian Curtin University, who made the relevant publication in the journal “Nature”, pointed out that the idea that the continents were originally created in giant meteorite impact regions has been proposed for decades, but until now there was no solid evidence to support it.
Johnson stated that, this time, “by examining tiny crystals of the mineral zirconium from the Pilbara Creighton region in Western Australia, where the best-preserved remnant of the Earth’s ancient crust has been found, we found evidence of these giant meteorite impacts. Studying the oxygen isotope composition of these zircon crystals revealed a “top-down” process that began with the melting of rocks near the surface and continued deeper, consistent with the geologic effects of the collapse of giant of meteorites”.
The researchers said that “the new research provides the first solid evidence that the processes that eventually formed the continents began with the impacts of giant meteorites, similar to those responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, but which occurred billions of years earlier.”
Understanding formation and the continued evolution of the continents is considered important, given that they host the vast majority of Earth’s biomass, all humans and almost all of the planet’s important minerals.
“Among other things, the continents are home to critical metals such as lithium, zinc and nickel, which are vital for the new green technologies needed to meet our obligations to mitigate climate change,” Johnson said.
RES-EMP
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