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| Researchers deny Earth had 'hellish' time |
| 2005-05-06 |
| Researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) have challenged the belief that the Earth - 4.5 billion years ago - was a violent, hot and hellish place. A unique method of testing the temperature at which rocks were formed shows the early Earth environment would have been similar to today. Geologist Professor Mark Harrison says that period in time had been labelled Hadean Eon, "the hellish time". "However, this would have produced rocks that were formed at very high temperatures and bone dry but we found the opposite," he said. Their research, the findings of which have been published in Science magazine, used a unique method of finding out the temperature at which rocks were formed. The scientists examined titanium content in crystals known as zircons, which are created during rock formation. The zircons, which are usually no longer than the width of a human hair, were extracted from ancient rock found in the Jack Hills, in Western Australia. By measuring the titanium concentration in more than 50 ancient zircons, the scientists were able to get an accurate measure of the temperatures at which the rocks were formed. Professor Harrison says they found the Hadean period could not have been chaotic. "What we’ve discovered is that the Earth was in fact a much more benign place, there were continents in a modern sense, there were oceans," he said. "Rocks were made in a controlled and ordered way, in many ways similar to the modern era. "The chances are that if you showed up for an afternoon on the early Earth, you would have seen blue oceans and sky, continents sticking out with roughly the same mass that we have today, and a fairly ordered environment." |
| Posted by:God Save The World |
| #20 Phil, The oils that is found in Gobi is on the eastern boundary. The dinos are located in western portion. The bedrock is fairly even, so one would expect the oil to be found anywhere. Yea, and Gobi is big. It would be like saying that because there are dinos found in Utah, it is connected to oil fields in Northern Texas. Sure oil is liquid, but the funny thing is that it seeps upward. Even more funny thing is that it has been located at great depths, without a trace of residual crushed biota. The more it is located toward surface, the more remnants of bacteria and other, mostly monocellular biota is found. Logically, it has been exposed to these critters because of the proximity. I don't want to exlude dinos, it may be considered profiling... ;-) But the above seem to suggest that we did not nail the origins of the substance down. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 20:59 |
#19
I was under the impression that there was oil in the Gobi Desert, and that oil exploration there was still ongoing. Remember, the oil is liquid, it seeps away, leaving the bones in place. :-) | |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-05-06 20:04 |
| #18 Just for completion, Tyr would be Tera-years = trillion. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 19:54 |
| #17 eLarson, same as Gyr. (Giga-anni/Giga-years), IOW. billion of years. Myr = (Mega) million years Kyr = (Kilo) thousand years |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 19:52 |
| #16 Phil - What's a ''Ga''? (I'm assuming a unit of measure... but of what?) I'm no geologist, so I'm having some difficulty sussing what they are talking about on your first link. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-05-06 19:24 |
| #15 Phil, appreciated #1 link. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 18:53 |
| #14 While ABC news sees no reason to differentiate one rock from another, here is a link for the more scientifically inclined. The sheep station where the rocks were found is a real science hotspot. 2 next generation radio astromy projects are located there. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2005-05-06 17:24 |
| #13 DING! We have a winner! |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-05-06 16:30 |
| #12 um. it was from Airplane. :) |
| Posted by: eLarson 2005-05-06 16:24 |
| #11 So we add ''and fell into a swamp'' between... ;-) |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-06 16:14 |
| #10 No, no! tu, not at all. I like your streamlined Connections. Proceed. ;-) |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 15:24 |
| #9 Nice site, .com, thanks! |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 15:21 |
| #8 I should've just shut up... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-05-06 15:20 |
| #7 Hokay, that they got big and fat, died, makes sense. Turning into oil, though ... There is a huge graveyard of dinos in Gobi. You find tons of them skeletons over each other, but no oil. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 15:19 |
| #6 ''But they got big and fat and turned into oil.'' But they got big and fat, died, and turned into oil. The image in the link. Did you look? Heh, one of those SomethingAwful pic themes. Some of the best Photoshoppers alive hang out thereabouts... |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-06 14:51 |
| #5 AlanC, no. It invalidates the accretion disk theory. It may be interpreted that the earth was made in a blink in the present composition and that it cooled down very fast, perhaps a few 1ky. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 14:48 |
| #4 .com, what? They ate too many strawberries? Static electricity zapped'em? Give me a sign. ;-) You're not saying they were all cooked by volcanic eruptions? The one thing I know is that some of them would not be able to be so big at the present gravity. For the land animals, elephant is as big as it gets. The recorded max. is about 11 metric tons and 4 m. The same dimensions apply to mammoth. |
| Posted by: Sobiesky 2005-05-06 14:44 |
| #3 Insert between ''fat'' and ''and''. died |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-06 10:56 |
| #2 First the earth cooled. Then the dinosaurs came. But they got big and fat and turned into oil. Then came the Arabs who all drive Mercedes Benzes... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2005-05-06 10:48 |
| #1 Well this certainly will be interesting. If the rocks were just forming, where did the oceans come from and what held them apart? Seems this may totally invalidate current theories as to the beginning of life, no? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2005-05-06 10:45 |
