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Remnants from Earth’s birth linger 4.5 billion years later

Traces of a long-extinct isotope give insight into planet’s origin

lava cliff

LOTTA LAVA The 60-million-year-old flood basalts of the North Atlantic Igneous Province (an area that includes the rocky outcroppings in Baffin Bay, shown) contain isotope traces that originated over 4.5 billion years ago. 

Don Francis

By Beth Geiger

- More than 2 years ago

Shaken-but-not-stirred remnants of Earth’s earliest years still exist nearly 4.6