A team of geologists has found the hottest lava from the core of Earth's mantle that has been erupted for more than 2 billion years. The komatiite lava was originated from the core of the planet during the Archean eon.
Geologists from the Virginia Tech University have found that the deep portion of the Earth may still have the hottest lava, which was originated from the Archean eon, 2.5 to 4 billion years ago during the formation of the planet.
Archean eon was the time following the Hadean eon, the most and earliest formation of the Earth. During Archean, the outermost crust of the planet Earth has begun to cool down and the komatiite, the hottest lava, flow the Earth surface and creating the continents. The research was conducted by the assistant professor of the Department of Geosciences at the Virginia Tech, Esteban Gazel and his doctoral student Jarek Trela.
"Komatiites were so hot that they glowed white instead of red," Professor Gazel said about Archean. "They flowed on a planetary surface with very different atmospheric conditions, more similar to Venus than the planet we live on today.”
Their study, which has been published in Nature GeoScience, presented a new evidence of the thermal evolution of the core of the Earth for the past 2.5 billion years. Following the end of Archean, the komatiites began to cool down, due to the convective cooling and decrease in radioactive heat. Afterward, the Proterozoic began, preceding the proliferation of life on Earth.
During their study of the ancient Galapagos lava flow in Central America, Professor Gazel found a fascinating evidence that the suite of lavas showed similar conditions of melting and crystallization to the mysterious Archean komatiites, the hottest lava on Earth.
As they continued the investigation further on the rocks at the Tortuga site in Costa Rica, they found the high concentration of magnesium, indicating the rocks were formed during the Archean as the hottest lava that has flown over the Earth. Watch the explanation regarding Archean below:
