{"id":6727,"date":"2018-05-24T07:24:39","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T23:24:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/malaysian-discovery-sheds-new-light-early-earth\/"},"modified":"2022-12-07T13:08:35","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T05:08:35","slug":"malaysian-discovery-sheds-new-light-early-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/malaysian-discovery-sheds-new-light-early-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian discovery sheds new light on early Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geologists from Curtin Malaysia have dated\u00a0a grain of zircon at 4.2 billion years old, making it the second-oldest rock ever discovered. The oldest, at 4.4\u00a0billion years old, was also\u00a0identified by Curtin researchers, in Western Australia, in 2001.<\/p>\n

The recent discovery was the result of collaborative research between Curtin\u00a0University, the University of Calcutta, India\u00a0and the\u00a0Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing. Their paper was published in the Scientific Reports<\/em>, an online multidisciplinary, open access journal from the publishers of Nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Rajat Mazumder\u00a0says the recent find offers fresh clues about the Earth’s origins.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe study of these zircons will add valuable information about the presence of water in the first few hundred million years of the Earth\u2019s history. It will also give us more clues to when plate tectonics began, adding to the speculation stemming from the Jack Hills zircons of Western Australia,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"Phd
PhD student Trisrota Chaudhuri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He added that the study suggests that the Earth\u2019s primitive crust was mafic (rich in iron and magnesium).<\/p>\n

Mazumder, a geologist in the Department of Applied Geology at Curtin Malaysia, and Trisrota Chaudhuri, a PhD scholar with the University of Calcutta, spent years researching what are known as the Singhbhum rocks of Odisha.<\/p>\n

They initially studied the rock samples at the Geological Studies Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, but for the isotopic analysis, they had to look beyond India,\u00a0to the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences for assistance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe machine used is called the Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP). It is not available in India. Dr. Yusheng Wan, a senior researcher with the Beijing SHRIMP Centre at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences in Beijing, agreed to analyse four samples on a collaboration basis,\u201d Associate Professor Mazumder said.<\/p>\n

The analyses confirmed the presence of two zircon grains that were 4,240 million and 4,030 million years old.<\/p>\n

They differ to those from WA in that they\u00a0are\u00a0magmatic zircon<\/em>,\u00a0formed in magma and occurring in metamorphosed igneous rock. The so-called Jack Hills zircons occur in metamorphosed sedimentary rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cThus, the Singhbhum zircon represents the second oldest rock from which it was derived and the zircon itself is the oldest magmatic zircon on earth,\u201d Mazumder says.<\/p>\n

Curtin Malaysia\u2019s Department of Applied Geology<\/a> is at the forefront of geological studies and research, exploring and documenting geological features throughout Malaysia and in other countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Geologists from Curtin Malaysia have dated a grain of zircon at 4.2 billion years old, making it the second-oldest rock ever discovered, behind another rock also found by Curtin geologists in 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6730,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,41],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community","category-environment"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"See more at Curtin Open Day!","content":"

Find out more about your future career as an Earth Scientist at Curtin Open Day<\/a> on 29 July 2018. Join us as we go meteorite hunting across Curtin’s campus, in a mock investigation into how we locate and look for space rocks on the ground, and hear from other students about their study experiences.<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":8694,"id":8694,"title":"o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","filename":"o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/malaysian-discovery-sheds-new-light-early-earth\/o-day-design-792x420-44-jpg-2\/","alt":"","author":"4275","description":"","caption":"","name":"o-day-design-792x420-44-jpg-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":6727,"date":"2022-07-01 07:07:39","modified":"2022-07-01 07:07:39","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":792,"height":420,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44-740x370.jpg","medium-width":740,"medium-height":370,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44-768x407.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":407,"large":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","large-width":792,"large-height":420,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","1536x1536-width":792,"1536x1536-height":420,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","2048x2048-width":792,"2048x2048-height":420,"small":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44-480x240.jpg","small-width":480,"small-height":240,"xlarge":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","xlarge-width":792,"xlarge-height":420,"xxlarge":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","xxlarge-width":792,"xxlarge-height":420,"hd":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","hd-width":792,"hd-height":420,"uhd":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/o-day-design-792x420-44.jpg","uhd-width":792,"uhd-height":420}}},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":{"title":"Curtin University","url":"#","target":""},"photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/1_The-Granite-Gneiss-rock-near-Champua-Odisha-India-that-contains-4240-million-year-old-zircon.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Jarrad","last_name":"Long","display_name":"Jarrad Long"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 07:31:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6727"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}