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Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 8:06:52 AM

Owner59

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Dated to 4.4 billion years ago.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/found-the-oldest-thing-so-far-earth

"
The oldest piece of the Earth to date has been located, and it’s in Western Australia. It’s a fragment of a crystal in a fragment of a rock: a zircon, to be precise.
Earth’s crust is full of zircons, which form when magma is forced to the surface and cools. They have such a high melting temperature that even if they are subducted, they usually don’t remelt and are often incorporated into newer rocks once they surface again. The zircons in question, in Australia, have most likely been through the magma cycle a few times. However, geologists can tease apart individual fragments of a given rock, dating each one with various techniques, including individual zircon crystals.
In 2001, a team dated a zircon found in the Jack Hills at 4.4 billion years old, using radiometric dating based on the decay of uranium isotopes into lead. The result shocked a lot of people who had theorized that the Earth was still far too hot for rocks to form that soon after the formation of the Solar System (4.5 billion years ago), and so like all good scientists, they continued to analyze their data. Now they’veconfirmed the original dating, which means Earth did indeed cool off a mere 100 million years after it formed. It follows, then, that liquid water could not have been too far behind, and with it, life."

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 8:44:32 AM

chatterbox24

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Its pretty!

I have a tanzanite ring which looks similar except it has some purple hue to it. I like the history of the stone too. Anyway interesting that stone or gem you post is blue like the sky.

< Message edited by chatterbox24 -- 3/2/2014 8:45:16 AM >

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 8:49:43 AM

kdsub

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Nuh.....If those scientists could look in my bathroom mirror they would change their minds on what is the oldest thing on earth. But I do wonder what the big deal is about what rock is oldest. Hell all of us... and everything around us... including the atoms in that crystal are exactly the same age. What difference does it make how much this or that is altered?

Butch

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 9:27:45 AM

Hillwilliam

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kdsub

Nuh.....If those scientists could look in my bathroom mirror they would change their minds on what is the oldest thing on earth. But I do wonder what the big deal is about what rock is oldest. Hell all of us... and everything around us... including the atoms in that crystal are exactly the same age. What difference does it make how much this or that is altered?

Butch

Actually, all atoms are not the same age.

Radioactive decay and fusion are making brand new atoms all the time.

There are Hydrogen atoms around that were formed just after the Big Bang and there were countless atoms formed from the remnants or combinations of others as I typed this.

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 9:33:47 AM

kdsub

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Will then go lower...to what constitutes the building blocks of atoms... picking a time and configuration of more complex constructs of nature and making a big deal out of it seems silly to me anyway. Everything in us... every part of us...at its most basic level was created at the same time... would you agree?

Butch

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 9:35:51 AM

chatterbox24

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ITs all very fascinating to say the least. I admit I know little, but knowing more of the history of the earth, finding new things, exploring is exciting.

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 9:45:32 AM

Hillwilliam

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quote:

ORIGINAL: kdsub

Will then go lower...to what constitutes the building blocks of atoms... picking a time and configuration of more complex constructs of nature and making a big deal out of it seems silly to me anyway. Everything in us... every part of us...at its most basic level was created at the same time... would you agree?

Butch

NOW, yer talkin.

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 5:52:14 PM

subrob1967

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FR And I bet it has a history of voting for Democrats

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RE: Oldest 'thing' (so far) on earth found. - 3/2/2014 6:21:37 PM

Raiikun

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This topic reminds me of a story. One you might not have heard.

"All the elements in your body were forged many, many millions of years ago in the heart of a far away star that exploded and died. That explosion scattered those elements across the desolations of deep space. After so, so many millions of years these elements came together to form new stars and new planets. And on and on it went. The elements came together and burst apart forming shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings. Until, eventually, they came together to make you. You are unique in the universe. There is only one Merry Galel and there will never be another."

- The Doctor

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