Jack Hills metasedimentary zircon dated at 4.404 billion years old

Oldest dated rocks

The oldest material of terrestrial origin that has been dated is a zircon mineral of 4.404 ± 0.008 Ga enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of Western Australia.^[4] The 4.404 ± 0.008 Ga zircon is a slight outlier, with the oldest consistently-dated zircon falling closer to 4.35 Ga.^[5] This zircon is part of a population of zircons within the metamorphosed conglomerate, which is believed to have been deposited about 3.060 Ga, which is the age of the youngest detrital zircon in the rock. Recent developments in atom-probe tomography have led to a further constraint on the age of the oldest continental zircon, with the most recent age quoted as 4.374 Ga ± 0.006.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest dated rocks
• Wilde, S. A. et al., 2001, Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago: Nature, 409, 175.
• Compston, W. and Pidgeon, R.T., 1986, Jack Hills, evidence of more very old detrital zircons in Western Australia: Nature, 321, 766.