World’s oldest rocks found in Canada
Researchers find the world’s oldest rocks, dating back to 4.28 billion years ago, on Canada’s Hudson Bay shore in northern Quebec.
Termed ‘faux amphibolite’, the rocks are 250 million years older than any rocks known so far and might be evidence of ancient life form activity.
"It could be that the rock was formed 4.3 billion years ago, but then it was re-worked into another rock form 3.8 billion years ago. That’s a hard distinction to draw,"
Co-author of the study and geology professor at McGill University, Don Francis explained.
"The rocks contain a very special chemical signature - one that can only be found in rocks which are very, very old," he added.
"Nobody has found that signal any place else on the Earth," Francis said.
Ancient rocks offer chemical clues that can help scientists resolve the ambiguities concerning the formation of the Earth and the way life started on it, BBC reported.
The oldest whole rocks found before ‘faux amphibolite’ were from a 4.03 billion-year-old body known as the Acasta Gneiss, in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
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