Ancient mineral reveals watery past.


	Ancient mineral reveals watery past.

pokkets

6-20-2008 12:08 AM

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pokkets says:

They also reason, that life may have been able to develop earlier, with liquid water being available.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/8f397a05-254a-4db5-9c67-3d15cfa411eb/D2FACEC2-49E5-4895-8BA3-CE430DFCB546/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest" href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest" style="font-size: 11px;">www.abc.net.au</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"> Jessica Marshall</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P class="first">An analysis of elements in ancient mineral crystals suggests liquid water existed on earth as long as 4.3 billion years ago, 100 million years earlier than previously thought.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.abc.net.au/img/B3B306C2-506F-4902-ABC8-64F1FC3A27A4" alt="earth in space" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>No rocks have been found on earth older than 4 billion years, which has led many geologists to believe that for the first 550 million years of earth's existence, the world was literally hellish - preventing solid rock from forming.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>But 25 years ago in a remote part of Western Australia, researchers found a few grains of zircon - a mineral that's extremely resistant to chemical changes - that were older than 4 billion years old. </P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>In 2001, Professor John Valley from the <A target="_blank" href="http://www.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Madison</A> and colleagues reported finding zircon that was 4.4 billion years old.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/20/2280823.htm?site=science&topic=latest"><P>In subsequent experiments they analysed oxygen isotopes in zircons that suggested that by 4.2 billion years ago, the Earth was no longer hellishly hot, but at a low enough temperature that liquid water would have been present.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D2FACEC2-49E5-4895-8BA3-CE430DFCB546/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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