New technique unlocks ancient history of Earth from grains of sand

The team devised a metric to determine the age distribution of minerals known as zircon within sand.

While much of the original geological record is lost to erosion, durable minerals like zircon form sediments that effectively gather information from these lost worlds to paint a vivid picture of the planet's history.

This new approach allows a greater understanding of the nature of ancient geology in order to reconstruct the arrangement and movement of tectonic plates on Earth through time.

The world's beaches faithfully record a detailed history of our planet's geological past, with billions of years of Earth's history imprinted in the geology of each grain of sand.

The new method can be used to trace the history of the Earth with greater detail than was previously possible, according to the co-author.

Zircons contain chemical elements that allow us to date and reconstruct the conditions of mineral formation. This technique allows us to chart the evolution of continents by identifying the particular age population demographic of the zircon grains.

The way the Earth recycles itself through erosion is tracked by the ages of zircon grains in different geological settings. There are many young grains on the west side of South America that were created from the sinking of the continental shelf, which caused earthquakes and volcanoes in the Andes. There is a mix of old and young grains picked up from a diversity of rocks across the Amazon basin on the east coast.

The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR) is the flagship Earth Sciences research institute at Curtin University and the research was funded by the Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia.

Understanding ancient tectonic settings through detrital zircon analysis was published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

More information: M. Barham et al, Understanding ancient tectonic settings through detrital zircon analysis, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117425 Journal information: Earth and Planetary Science Letters Citation: New technique unlocks ancient history of Earth from grains of sand (2022, March 1) retrieved 1 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-technique-ancient-history-earth-grains.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.