Christian Sole, Hanika Rico, and Jonathan O’Neil on the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec. Courtesy of Jonathan O’Neil
Rocks found in northern Quebec have been confirmed to be the oldest on Earth, dating back more than 4 billion years, according to a recent study published in Science.
The rocks were found by researchers in 2017 from near the municipality of Nunavik as part of Christian Sole’s master’s project. Jonathan O’Neil, who supervised the study, said that at the time, the rocks in the area had been estimated to be about 3.8 million years old, but new testing has dated them back even further to 4.16 billion years, or from the Hadean eon (4.6 billion to 4 billion years ago).
