Erosion transformed ancient Earth’s surface

Erosion transformed ancient Earth’s surface

PTIUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 03:34 AM IST
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Picture credit: astronomy.com.cn |

London: Earth’s surface experienced the largest crustal erosion event in its history about 700 million years ago, paving the way for animal life to develop, according to a study. Scientists, including those from the University of Southampton in the UK, found compelling evidence for scouring of three to five kilometres across all the continents during the Neoproterozoic Era (one billion to 550 million years ago) which would have seen the Earth’s crust wash into the oceans in unprecedented volumes.

The finding provides the strongest explanation yet for the origin and extent of the ‘Great Unconformity’ — a profound gap in the Earth’s rock record — exposed most dramatically in the Grand Canyon in the US. Here, sedimentary rocks from the Cambrian era, which began 550 million years ago, were deposited directly on top of rocks from the Mesoproterozoic era, which ended one billion years ago.

The erosion happened when most of the Earth’s surface was covered in ice during a severe glaciation, dubbed ‘snowball Earth’, that lasted over 50 million years. “The findings help explain a fundamental enigma of Earth’s history, whilst also having profound implications for mineral exploration in ancient terrains worldwide,” said Thomas Gernon, an associate professor at the University of Southampton. While preserved rocks from this era are sparse, the scientists were able to study a database of 30 thousand zircon crystals formed in magmas.

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