Creating the Continental Crust
Rock found in northern Canada are the remains of anicent proto-continents.
Metamorphic rocks, found 250 kilometres north of Yellowknife in the 1980's, have been identified as being among the oldest samples of early continental crust. The rocks - which are just over 4 billion years old - were studied by Jesse Reimink, a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at The University of Alberta in Edmonton. Geochemical analysis revealed that the rocks from the Northwest Territories are similar in composition to rocks in Iceland, known to be part of the process that resulted in the formation of continental crust. That process involves the interaction of water and magma making its way to the surface, forming a crust that rises up through the sea and eventually becomes a continent.
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