Jun 26, 2025 10:29 PM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1089122
EXCERPTS: A team of Canadian and French researchers has confirmed that northern Quebec is home to the oldest known rocks on Earth, dating back 4.16 billion years.
Under the leadership of Jonathan O’Neil, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa, this major discovery is the fruit of a collaboration involving Christian Sole (who completed a master’s at the University of Ottawa in 2021), Hanika Rizo, (a professor at Carleton University), Jean-Louis Paquette (a now-deceased researcher at France’s Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in the Université Clermont-Auvergne’s Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans), David Benn (a former bachelor’s student at uOttawa) and Joeli Plakholm (a former bachelor’s student at Carleton University).
O’Neil, who supervised the original study, explains: “The results obtained during Christian Sole’s master’s were very promising. We continued the research after he completed his master’s to confirm the exceptional age of these rocks.”
[...] To establish the age of these rocks, the researchers combined petrology and geochemistry and applied two radiometric dating methods using different isotopes of the elements samarium and neodymium as two separate chronometers indicating the same age, 4.16 million years. This discovery opens a unique window on the early Earth... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.ads8461
EXCERPTS: A team of Canadian and French researchers has confirmed that northern Quebec is home to the oldest known rocks on Earth, dating back 4.16 billion years.
Under the leadership of Jonathan O’Neil, an associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa, this major discovery is the fruit of a collaboration involving Christian Sole (who completed a master’s at the University of Ottawa in 2021), Hanika Rizo, (a professor at Carleton University), Jean-Louis Paquette (a now-deceased researcher at France’s Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in the Université Clermont-Auvergne’s Laboratoire Magmas et Volcans), David Benn (a former bachelor’s student at uOttawa) and Joeli Plakholm (a former bachelor’s student at Carleton University).
O’Neil, who supervised the original study, explains: “The results obtained during Christian Sole’s master’s were very promising. We continued the research after he completed his master’s to confirm the exceptional age of these rocks.”
[...] To establish the age of these rocks, the researchers combined petrology and geochemistry and applied two radiometric dating methods using different isotopes of the elements samarium and neodymium as two separate chronometers indicating the same age, 4.16 million years. This discovery opens a unique window on the early Earth... (MORE - details, no ads)
PAPER: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.ads8461
