New study: Hell not as bad as we thought

The very earliest years of Earth have long been presumed hot, violent and terrible – so much so that the era from 4.5 billion years to 4 billion years ago is known as the Hadean Eon, or Hellish time.
However, a four-year study of the oldest known minerals on Earth, published in this week’s Science magazine, has found that Hadean is most probably a misnomer.
Using a newly developed thermometer made of zircon, researchers have found evidence that environmental conditions on early Earth, within 200 million years of the solar system's formation, were characterized by liquid-water oceans and continental crust similar to those of the present day.

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All News summaries for May 06, 2005