[Rockhounds] World's largest iron ore deposits formed over 1 billion years ago in supercontinent breakup

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

The world's largest iron ore deposits formed when the ancient
supercontinent Columbia broke up around 1.4 billion years ago, a new study
suggests.

The deposits, located in what is now Hamersley Province in Western
Australia, sit on a chunk of Earth's crust known as the Pilbara Craton. The
Pilbara Craton is one of only two pieces of crust known to date back to the
Archaean Eon (3.8 billion to 2.5 billion years ago) and hosts some of the
oldest rocks on our planet. (The other Archaean crust is the Kaapvaal
Craton in southern Africa.)

Rocks in the Pilbara Craton have witnessed the *birth and breakup of
several supercontinents*
<https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/columbia-rodinia-and-pangaea-a-history-of-earths-supercontinents>,
meaning they hold clues about the origins of the region's rich mineral
deposits, researchers said in the new study. In particular, the breakup of
supercontinent Columbia, which existed between 1.7 billion and 1.45 billion
years ago, and the subsequent amalgamation of Australia between 1.4 billion
and 1.1 billion years ago, could explain how huge iron ore reserves formed
in the Hamersley Province.

The team revealed its findings in a study published July 23 in the journal
*PNAS* <https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2405741121>.

"The energy from this epic geological activity likely triggered the
production of billions of tons of iron-rich rock across the Pilbara," study
lead author *Liam Courtney-Davies*
<https://www.colorado.edu/geologicalsciences/liam-courtney-davies>, a
geochronologist and postdoctoral associate at the University of Colorado,
Boulder, said in a *statement*
<https://www.curtin.edu.au/news/media-release/ore-some-new-date-for-earths-largest-iron-deposits-offers-clues-for-future-exploration/>
.

https://www.livescience.com/planet-earth/geology/world-s-largest-iron-ore-deposits-formed-over-1-billion-years-ago-in-supercontinent-breakup