Abstract
We report here the existence of detrital zircons from Western Australia which are far older than any known terrestrial rocks. They are from quartzites at Mt Narryer (Fig. 1), a locality which has created interest because of the nearby occurrence of 3,630±40 Myr orthogneisses1. The older zircons were discovered during reconnaissance U–Pb age determinations of zircon concentrates from Archaean metasediments, using the ion microprobe SHRIMP2,3 at the Australian National University. These determinations are being made specifically to search for zircons having ages in the interval 3,800–4,500 Myr, a period unrepresented so far by reliable terrestrial age determinations. Grain-by-grain measurements of one particular concentrate revealed four zircons (Fig. 2) having near-concordant U–Pb ages between 4,100 and 4,200 Myr, in striking contrast to most grains whose ages are ∼3,750 and ∼3,500 Myr. These results show that pre-3,800 Myr silica-saturated rocks were indeed present on the Earth's crust.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
DeLaeter, J. R. et al. Nature 292, 322–324 (1981).
Clement, S. W. J., Compston, W. & Newstead, G. Proc. int. S.I.M.S. Conf., Meunster (ed. Benninghoven, A. ) (Springer, Berlin, 1977).
Compston, W., Williams, I. S. & Clement, S. W. J. Proc. 30th Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. Conf. Honolulu, 593–595 (Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom., 1982).
Williams, I. R., Walker, I. W., Hocking, R. M. & Williams, S. J. Geol. Surv. Western Australia Rec. 5 (1980).
Coles, J. W. N., Compston, W. & Foster, J. J. Research School of Earth Sciences, AMU., A. Rep., 175–179 (1980).
Compston, W., Williams, I. S. & Meyer, C. Proc. 14th Lunar Sci. Conf. (in the press).
Baadsgaard, H. et al. Earth planet. Sci. Lett. (in the press).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Froude, D., Ireland, T., Kinny, P. et al. Ion microprobe identification of 4,100–4,200 Myr-old terrestrial zircons. Nature 304, 616–618 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/304616a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/304616a0
This article is cited by
-
The crystal timekeeper zircon
Nature Geoscience (2023)
-
Crustal rejuvenation stabilised Earth’s first cratons
Nature Communications (2021)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.