Billions of years ago, the earth was likely to be flat, submerged in water and with just a handful of small, protruding islets. Researchers from the Australian National University traversed the theory of the earth some 4.4 billion years ago. The earliest depiction of earth was based on the oldest fragments of zircon mineral grains that they found in Western Australia.
According to lead researcher Antony Burnham, the zircon grains were embedded in sandstone rocks found in Jack Hills. To date, these specimens are the oldest fragments that might give clues to the earth's past eons ago. Burnham claims that what his team found is the best proof yet of the flat earth landscape since it is very difficult to find any surviving rocks from billions of years ago.
Burnham described the very early landscape of earth as quiet and dull. There were no mountains nor any continental collisions. These were all backed up by the zircon grains who act like a skin cell out of the oldest rocks, Phys.org said.
The vast shallow ocean that engulfs the whole earth prevailed for billions of years and life formed some 3.8 billion years ago. However, a massive rock from space hit the earth around 2 billion years ago and set off violent volcanic activities. This event ultimately alters the earth's surface, according to Mail Online.
In most cases, zircon grains were formed through a process called sediment melting. This process is especially common during the continental collisions such as the Himalayas. However, the zircon grains that Burnham's team discovered were formed through a unique process - by melting older igneous rocks.
Given that igneous rock melting happened to form the zircon grains from billions of years ago rather than sediment melting, it suggests that no continental collisions happened in the early stages of the earth. To prove the presumption, the research went on for several decades, with many people who collect zircon grains. There were chemical analyses which were done by the ANU researchers as well over the course of years.
