Thin section of the 3,8 billion-year-old mantle rock from southwestern Greenland (IMAGE)

University of Cologne

Thin section of the 3,8 billion-year-old mantle rock from southwestern Greenland

Caption

The rock is composed mainly of the mineral olivine. These oldest preserved mantle rocks of the Earth provide new evidence that water and other elements necessary for life, like carbon and nitrogen, were only supplied to Earth very late.

Credit

Julia van de Löcht, University of Cologne

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