Earth's crust today has a surprisingly similar composition to the planet's first outer shell, or "protocrust," new research ...

The study also provides a new approach to solving one of the biggest enduring scientific mysteries: when did plate tectonics begin?

Geologists have made certain assumptions about how the crust making up our planet's earliest surface formed, but a new study has found that Earth's very first protocrust was surprisingly similar to ...

Earth is the only known planet which has plate tectonics today. The constant movement of these giant slabs of rock over the planet's magma creates continents - and may have even helped create life.

Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the ... the protocrust -- Earth's earliest crust formed during the Hadean eon (4.5-4.0 billion years ago) -- would naturally develop the ...

The chemical signature of rocks formed in subduction zones (where ... protocrust—Earth's earliest crust formed during the Hadean eon (4.5–4.0 billion years ago)—would naturally develop ...

Continental clues: Modern continental rocks carry chemical signatures from the very start ... The team’s calculations showed the protocrust – Earth’s earliest crust formed during the Hadean eon (4.5-4 ...

which formed during the Hadean eon, about 4.5 to 4.0 billion years ago. Data from zircon minerals—dated to 4.38 billion years—in Jack Hills metasediments demonstrated that evolved rocks with a ...