Jack Hills

The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Western Australia. They include the oldest material of terrestrial origin found on Earth. These are zircons which formed about 4.4 billion years ago (bya).^[1] The oldest zircon with the most consistent date is closer to 4.35 bya.^[2]

This zircon is part of a population of zircons in the metamorphosed conglomerate. They were deposited about 3.060 bya, which is the age of the youngest detrital zircon in the rock.

The zircons are used in research on the conditions on Earth in the Hadean eon.

1. ↑ Simon A. Wilde et al 2001. Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 billion years ago. Nature Geoscience.
2. ↑ Wilde S.A. et al 2001. Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago. Nature 409, 175-178. [1]