With zircon U-Pb crystallization ages as old as about 4.03 Ga, beds within the Acasta Gneiss Complex are, as of 2019, regarded to be the oldest known felsic rocks (crust) on Earth. [4] .

The oldest intact rock found on Earth to date is from the Acasta Gneiss Complex of northwest Canada. U/Pb dates of zircon from the gneiss reach into the Hadean Eon at 4.02 Ga. Rock from the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec, Canada does not contain zircon as it is mafic to ultramafic in composition and represents ancient ocean crust.

The Canadian Shield, the largest expanse of Precambrian rocks on Earth, is host to Earth’s oldest known rock – the Acasta Gneiss of the Slave Province of the Shield, located about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

At 3.96 billion years old, this gneiss is one of the oldest known Earth rocks. The Earth is 500 million years older still, but little record of that early time has survived our planet's geologic activity.

…oldest rocks are the 4-billion-year-old Acasta granitic gneisses in northwestern Canada, and a single relict zircon grain dated to 4.2 billion years ago was found within these gneisses. Other ancient sediments and lavas occur in the 3.85-billion-year-old Isua belt of western Greenland (which is similar to an accretionary wedge in…

A field and geochemical investigation of the oldest known rocks on Earth: the ca. 4.03 billion year old Acasta Gneiss complex, Canada. The purpose of this report is to highlight some of the preliminary findings from field work conducted during the summer of 2009 at the Acasta Gneiss Complex, in Northern Canada.

The Acasta Gneiss is the oldest rock in the world. It is in the Slave craton in Northwest Territories, Canada. The rock body is exposed on an island about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife. The rock of the outcrop was metamorphosed 3.58 to 4.031 billion (10 9) years ago. It is the oldest known intact crustal fragment on Earth. [1]

Acasta gneiss, oldest-known rock on Earth: is found in a small area of the Slave craton, a western province of the Precambrian shield of Canada. Rock that is approximately 4 billion years (4000 Ma, that is, million years) old is known over an area of about 40 km 2, about 150 km south of the Arctic circle (Bowring and Williams, 1999; Zimmer,1999).

Jan 1, 2014 · The Acasta gneiss complex in northwestern Canada contains some of the oldest dated rocks on earth and the oldest dated using U-Pb in zircon. They therefore potentially preserve clues to the nature and history of earth’s oldest crust.

The Acasta gneisses are the oldest dated rocks on Earth. They are exposed in northwestern Canada (65° 10′ N and 115° 30′ W) along the western margin of the Archean Slave craton (>2.5 Ga), in the core of a north-trending fold in the foreland of Wopmay orogen, a …