Ancient rocks reveal critical metal origin and continent-breaking forces Researchers found niobium-rich carbonatites were formed over 800 million years ago, rising from deep in the Earth via crust fractures: www.uni-goettingen.de/en/3240.html?id=7909 #GeologicalMagazine: doi.org/10.1017/S001...

~80% of the world’s hard-rock #lithium comes from #Archean #pegmatite whose formation is not fully understood. Work by Smithies et al. shows the importance of crustal boundaries and hydrous mantle-derived magma from deep metasomatized lithospheric domains. #openaccess doi.org/10.1038/s432...

Ever wondered how many grains you need to analyse for a representative detrital mineral study? We're putting out some new suggestions and numbers whilst addressing possible sources of bias such as mount heterogeneity: doi.org/10.1016/j.ep...

Brand-new study on carbonatites in the central Australian Aileron Province. The carbonatites were emplaced at ca. 830 Ma when the Rodinia Supercontinent started breaking apart and host the critical mineral Niobium (Nb). doi.org/10.1017/S001...

Studies of heavy minerals have been challenging to perform at scale. We've gleaned some interesting new understanding from continental-scale HM analysis from Australia but with implications for sediment routing studies globally.

#openaccess in @natcomms.nature.com in collaboration with the #JDLC and #GSWA. Understanding ancient incipient crust formation through a melt-bearing amphibolite from the Sylvania Inlier of the Pilbara Craton, WA. doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Old rocks and even more ancient Earth history from down under. youtu.be/y1BiUYWwf_A?...

Rocks from 700 million years ago hold the clues. From glaciers bulldozing landscapes to meltwater rivers flushing chemical elements into the oceans = it’s a story of how land, sea, and sky are all geochemically connected. theconversation.com/giant-glacie...

Boom! Earth's (currently) oldest crater right in the centre of the Pilbara Craton. 3.5 Billion Years old. Hummm.... implications for life. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Boom theconversation.com/earths-oldes...

Shatter cones in rocks in the Pilbara craton, in Western Australia, provide evidence for oldest known impact crater on Earth, which struck 3.5 billion years ago, according to a paper in Nature Communications. https://go.nature.com/3DrWafY ⚒️ 🧪