How old is...Earth's Oldest Rock?

Answer 1

4.4 billion years old, found near the Jack Hills region of australia

Answer 2

For rock known to be an intrinsic part fo Earth's development, around 4.4 billion.

Geological evidence suggests that Earth may have had surface water --and thus conditions to support life -- millions of years earlier than previously thought. Scientists reconstructed the portrait of early Earth by reading the telltale chemical composition of the oldest known terrestrial rock. The 4.4-billion-year-old mineral sample suggests that early Earth was not a roiling ocean of magma, but instead was cool enough for water, continents, and conditions that could have supported life. The age of the sample may also undermine accepted current views on how and when the moon was formed. The research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and is published in this week's issue of the journal Nature.

The sample assumed to be from the oldest known material from the Earth, a single crystal of zircon from the Jack Hills metaconglomerate, Western Australia. The crystallization age of 4.40Ga (4004+-4Ma) was determined from the a smaller subsection.

Scientists have been searching diligently to find samples of the Earth's oldest rocks. Valley and Peck say such ancient samples are extremely rare because rock is constantly recycled or sinks to the hot mantle of the Earth. Over the great spans of geologic time, there is little surface material that has not been recycled and reprocessed in this way.

The tiny grain of zirconium silicate or zircon found by Wilde in western Australia was embedded in a larger sample containing fragments of material from many different rocks. Zircons dated at 4.3 billion years were reported from the same site a decade ago, but the new-found zircon grain is more than 100 million years older than any other known sample, giving scientists a rare window to the earliest period of the Earth.

Answer 3

The oldest rock that has ever been found is more than 3.9 billion years old. The Earth itself is at least 4.5 billion years old, but rocks from the beginning of Earth's history have changed so much from their original form that they have become new kinds of rock. By studying how rocks form and change, scientists have built a solid understanding of the Earth we live on and its long history.

Granite-like rock called gneiss,comes from a formation that dates back more than four billion years--the oldest rock yet found on Earth.
How can we possibly know this? Nature doesn't print birth certificates or hammer a year on its creations as if they were coins. Scientists have learned to tell the age of bones, rocks, planets, and stars by using clocks that tick away in the very atoms that form them.
www.sciencemaster.com/jump/earth/rock_collecting.php -

Answer 4

The oldest rock on earth is said to be 4.5 billion years old.
It is said to be deep inside the earth crust.
Probably some miles up the middle of the earth.It is actually in allparts of the world.
Since it's already molten lava.It spreads throughout inner part of earth and maybe comes out in the form of magma.
Builders may also use that rock to build hoses.
And maybe1/65,762,493,788 chances that might be your home or not.

Answer 5

The estimated age of the Earth is 4.55 billion years give or take 1%. I would guess the oldest rock must be around the same date.

Answer 6

I thought the EARTH was the oldest rock

Answer 7

the oldest comes from either Greenland or Canada cannot remember which one check thru google

Answer 8

Status Quo.

Answer 9

oldest known is about 3.8 billion years.

This could be an outdated article. I seem to remember something about one being found that is 4.4 billion years.

Answer 10

granite from the Minnesota River valley has been dated to about 3.8 billion years