1/ Timelord #Zircon has many stories, this is one of them… (regenerated from the 𝔅𝚒🆁ⓓ𝚜𝑖🅃𝐞 for #MinCup23).
It’s a tale involving bear-driven serendipity and some really old #zircon…
Geological mapping in northern Canada is challenging. There are no roads. No coverage. Only a few summer months free of snow and ice. Lots of lakes. 𝙇𝙤𝙩𝙨 of bugs. And bears. They need to fatten up quickly to get through the winter so are always looking for food.
This is a problem for geologists because…
4/ Eventually #geochronology expert Sam Bowring and colleagues analysed the samples and found evidence that the rock was older than expected. A 𝒍𝒐𝒕 older. U-Pb TIMS analysis of some #zircon found ages up to 3.8 billion years and other isotopic data suggested it was even older.