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In elementary school, children learn about thewater cycle.
From evaporation to condensation into clouds to precipitation as rain, water cycles between land and sky.
But when did this process begin?
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Earth itself is4.5 billion years old, but freshwater was not immediately present.
However, a new paper published inNature Geosciencesuggests Earth experienced its first rain earlier than previously thought.
The researchers examined Hadean zircon crystals from theJack Hillsin Australia.
This 4.4 billion-year-old zircon crystal is re-writing Earth’s history. (Photo:John Valley)
This remote dry region boasts these crystals, the oldest terrestrial bits of our planet.
Zircons areminerals, inside which lurk isotopes that the team examined through secondary-ion mass spectrometry.
They discovered traces of contact with water four billion years ago.
In the end, these oxygen isotopes change the known timeline of Earth’s formation.
Rainy days, it turns out, have been around for four billion years.
This 4.4 billion-year-old zircon crystal is re-writing Earth’s history.
