[Rockhounds] Scientists Found a New Window Into the Hellish Ancient Earth

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Four and a half billion years ago, some dust from a cloud orbiting around a
star coalesced into a rocky planet. But unlike most of the dusty balls in
our solar system, this one was special—it was just the right distance away
from the star that one day after the surface had cooled, water could exist
as a liquid, rather than a solid or gas. The planet’s surface eventually
fractured into plates that shifted around, becoming continents. All that
shifting has rubbed away the details of that ancient Earth. Was the era as
hellish as its name, “Hadean” implies, or was Earth always a water-rich orb
with moving plates?

Scientists have found a new portal into this turbulent time that could lead
to answers.

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-found-a-new-window-into-the-hellish-ancient-1793314650