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Evidence of earth's first rains found trapped within primordial crystals
New research finds Earth's surface was first sprinkled with fresh water some 4 billion years ago, a whole 500 million years earlier than previously thought.
The dry, red, dusty landscape doesn't get much water these days, but scientists found evidence of the Earth's oldest rains trapped inside the rock's Hadean zircon crystals, and it's a big change to our understanding of the planet's hydrological history. "This discovery not only sheds light on Earth's early history but also suggests landmasses and fresh water set the stage for life to flourish within a relatively short time frame – less than 600 million years after the planet formed," he says. It was previously thought the crust was submerged beneath an ocean back then; some of the earliest terrestrial lifeforms we've found are 3.48 billion year old microbial reefs known as stromatolites discovered just over 800 kilometers (around 500 miles) north of the Jack Hills, in the Pilbara Craton.
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