Earth’s First Crust Was Continental – Long Before Plate Tectonics Began

New research suggests that Earth’s first crust, formed over 4.5 billion years ago, already carried the chemical traits we associate with modern continents. This means the telltale fingerprints of continental crust didn’t need plate tectonics to form, turning a long-standing theory on its head. Using simulations of early Earth conditions, scientists found that the intense [...]