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Traces of Earth’s Early Magma Ocean Identified in Greenland Rocks
New research led by the University of Cambridge has found rare evidence – preserved in the chemistry of ancient rocks from Greenland - which tells of a time when Earth was almost entirely molten.
Isua in Greenland
Credit: Hanika Rizo / University of Cambridge
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, yields information on an important period in our planet’s formation, when a deep sea of incandescent magma stretched across Earth’s surface and extended hundreds of kilometres into its interior.
It is the gradual cooling and crystallisation of this ‘magma ocean’ that set the chemistry of Earth’s interior – a defining stage in the assembly of our planet’s structure and the formation of our early atmosphere.