Oxygen-isotope evidence from ancient zircons for liquid water at the Earth's surface 4,300 Myr ago

Abstract

Granitoid gneisses and supracrustal rocks that are 3,800-4,000 Myr old are the oldest recognized exposures of continental crust1. To obtain insight into conditions at the Earth's surface more than 4 Gyr ago requires the analysis of yet older rocks or their mineral remnants. Such an opportunity is presented by detrital zircons more than 4 Gyr old found within 3-Gyr-old quartzitic rocks in the Murchison District of Western Australia2,3. Here we report in situ U-Pb and oxygen isotope results for such zircons that place constraints on the age and c omposition of their sources and may therefore provide information about the nature of the Earth's early surface. We find that 3,910-4,280 Myr old zircons have oxygen isotope (δ18O) values ranging from 5.4 ±0.6‰to 15.0 ±0.4‰. On the basis of these results, we postulate that the ∼4,300-Myr-old zircons formed from magmas containing a significant component of re-worked continental crust that formed in the presence of water near the Earth's surface. These data are therefore consistent with the presence of a hydrosphere interacting with the crust by 4,300 Myr ago.