Ancient Magma From Earth's Early Days Discovered in Rocks From Greenland 12 MARCH 2021 Our planet's surface has seen a thing or two in its 4.5 billion-odd-years of existence. Weathered by ocean, corroded by wind, and remolded by the relentless turnover of plate tectonics, we might assume nothing remains of Earth in its most primitive state.
Yet an analysis of rocks from a formation in Greenland reveals traces of a geological journey that took place at a time when our rocky world was little more than a molten ocean of magma, and it could fill in missing details on our ancient past. Researchers from the University of Cambridge in the UK and Carleton University in Canada paid particular attention to signature levels of iron isotopes in a powdered sample of basalt taken from the northern parts of the Isua Greenland Belt (ISB).