4 billion year old crystals provide clues to when plate tectonics began and set the stage for life on earth
Artist’s illustration of uninhabitable conditions during Hadean, an early geological eon of Earth’s history. Credit: Alec Brenner Zircons (and the secrets they have) are forever Scientists have long known that plate tectonics, the motion of distinct, rigid plates that make up the earth’s crust, formed continents and mountains, were crucial to the evolution of the …
