Oldest bit of crust firms up idea of a cool early Earth
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2014-02-oldest-bit ... a.html#jCpThe new study confirms that zircon crystals from Western Australia's Jack Hills region crystallized 4.4 billion years ago, building on earlier studies that used lead isotopes to date the Australian zircons and identify them as the oldest bits of the Earth's crust. The microscopic zircon crystal used by Valley and his group in the current study is now confirmed to be the oldest known material of any kind formed on Earth.
However, the first image that I saw when doing a search was this:
http://www.stevengrindle.com/two_d_art/ ... 4_full.jpg
Totally electric, from my no doubt biased perspective.
Then I was doing a search on the reliability of the dating method, and landed on this site, which, as well as commenting on dating methods, has many very interesting and informative articles and presentations, most of which I have not had time to look at in any detail yet, but seem to cover many of the subjects being discussed here on TB,and a good source of info on geological features too.
Zircons and Uranium-Lead Dating
http://www.detectingdesign.com/radiomet ... d%20Dating
Radiometric Dating Methods - The Emperor Has No Clothes ...
http://www.detectingdesign.com/radiometricdating.html
The Geological Column.
http://www.detectingdesign.com/geologiccolumn.html