Isua greenstone belt

Encyclopedia : I : IS : ISU : Isua greenstone belt

The Isua Greenstone Belt is an Archean greenstone belt in southwestern Greenland. The belt is aged between 3.7 and 3.8 Ga, making among the oldest rocks in the world. The belt contains variably metamorphosed mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. The occurrence of Boninitic geochemical signatures offers evidence that plate tectonic processes may be responsible for the creation of the belt. Pillowed basalts indicate that liquid water existed on the surface at this time.

Reference

Polat, A., Hofmann, A.W., and Rosing, M.T., 2002. Boninite-like volcanic rocks in the 3.7-3.8 Ga Isua greenstone belt, West Greenland: geochemical evidence for intra-oceanic subduction zone processes in the early Earth. Chemical Geology, 184: 231-254.

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.