CANADAUSAHudson
BayRemains of Earth’s
First Crust Discovered
Scientists found traces of our planet’s
original crust in Canadian rock.GEOLOGY In rocks in North-Eastern Canada,
scientists have surprisingly discovered
4.3+-billion-year-old remains of Earth’s original
crust. The crust made up the world’s exterior
layer for the first few hundred million years
following the planet’s origin, but it was later
broken down or sank towards the interior of
the planet. So, scientists believed that the old
crust had disappeared, but the new discovery
shows that it is not so. Geologists from the
University of Ottawa studied 2.7-billion-year-
old rock along Hudson Bay and found a high
content of neodymium-142. The rare material
was only produced for the first 500 million
years of Earth’s existence, and so, scientists
were able to conclude that the Canadian rock
formed in a remelting of the original crust.1 billion
km/h. A Norwegian physicist says it's possible to build
rockets which fly at a speed of 99.999 % of the speed of light.GIANT GROUND SLOTHS DUG HUGE TUNNELS // Brazilian sci-
entists have discovered a number of tunnels, which are up to 60 m long and 2 m
high. Large scratch marks on the walls reveal that the tunnels were probably
made by the 2.6 tonne ground sloth, which lived up until 8,000 years ago.LOCAL FOCAL POINT – Brazil
HUDSON BAY FORMED
IN ANCIENT ROCK
Aged 2.7 billion years, the rock by
Hudson Bay in Québec is among the
oldest rock in the world. The granite,
which includes the remains of Earth’s
original crust, makes up a major part
of the Hudson Bay east coast.VÉRONIQUE VILLENEUVE
HEINRICH FRANKSCIENCE UPDATE