New discovery about the formation of the Earth's crust

An international team of scientists has dated a tiny mineral sample considered to be Earth's oldest - about 4.4 billion years old, opening up new hopes in the journey to explore the early period and the process of Earth becoming a living planet.

The specimen is believed to be the oldest on Earth. (Source: Reuters)

According to research results published on February 23, the Earth is believed to have formed about 4.5 billion years ago.

But scientists have almost no information about the period before that, especially when the Earth cooled, causing the Earth's crust to freeze and form liquid water.

Previous theories suggested that the cooling of the Earth required a period of 600 million years.

However, the discovery of zircon crystals (a mineral) in recent decades suggests that the Earth's crust formed 4.374 billion years ago, 160 million years after the Earth and other planets in the Solar System formed.

This further supports the hypothesis of a cold Earth with temperatures low enough to allow water, oceans and the hydrosphere to form shortly after the Earth's crust.

From here, scientists came to the conclusion that the Earth once had a hydrosphere 4.3 billion years ago, although it did not exist for long.

The team used a new technology called atom probe microscopy (APT) that can accurately date very small pieces of mineral by measuring the individual lead atoms inside.

Due to its high durability, zircon can withstand billions of years of erosion while still retaining its chemical properties and providing a wealth of geological information./.

According to VNA