Oldest dated rocks

In 1999, the oldest known rock on Earth was dated to 4.031 ±0.003 billion years, and is part of the Acasta Gneiss of the Slave Craton in northwestern Canada.

[5][6][7] The oldest material of terrestrial origin that has been dated is a zircon mineral of 4.404 ±0.008 Ga enclosed in a metamorphosed sandstone conglomerate in the Jack Hills of the Narryer Gneiss terrane of Western Australia.

The Acasta Gneiss in the Canadian Shield in the Northwest Territories, Canada is composed of the Archaean igneous and gneissic cores of ancient mountain chains that have been exposed in a glacial peneplain.

Analyses of zircons from a felsic orthogneiss with presumed granitic protolith returned an age of 4.031 ±0.003 Ga.[1] On September 25, 2008, researchers from McGill University, Carnegie Institution for Science and UQAM announced that a rock formation, the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, exposed on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in northern Quebec had a Sm–Nd model age for extraction from the mantle of 4.28 billion years.

[11][12][13][14] However, it is argued that the actual age of formation of this rock, as opposed to the extraction of its magma from the mantle, is likely closer to 3.8 billion years, according to Simon Wilde of the Institute for Geoscience Research in Australia.

[15] In a paper published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, a team of scientists suggest that rocky continents and liquid water existed at least 4.3 billion years ago and were subjected to heavy weathering by an acrid climate.

[16] One of the oldest Martian meteorites found on Earth, Allan Hills 84001 has been measured to have crystallized from molten rock 4.091 billion years ago.

Calcium-aluminium rich inclusions (CAIs) in meteorites are the oldest solids that formed in the Solar System, so are conventionally used to set its formation date as 4567.30 ± 0.16 Myr.