Early Evolution of Continents
- 24 January 1997
- journal article
- perspective
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 275 (5299) , 498-499
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.275.5299.498
Abstract
How did the continents form, and how long ago? These questions have been the subject of debate for 30 years. As Hofmann discusses in his Perspective, results reported by Sylvester et al . ( p. 521 ) reveal that measurements of niobium and uranium isotopes indicate that ancient rocks from Western Australia are indistinguishable from modern mantle rock. This finding suggests that the mass and extent of continents today is comparable to that 2.7 billion years ago.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Niobium/Uranium Evidence for Early Formation of the Continental CrustScience, 1997
- Nb and Pb in oceanic basalts: new constraints on mantle evolutionEarth and Planetary Science Letters, 1986