To trace how crucial ingredients for life arrived at Earth, scientists track noble gases. Now, improved methods are drawing new clues from krypton, the most cryptic of noble gases.
early Earth
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Zircons and Plate Tectonics
New data on ancient zircons points to a transition from stagnant lid to subduction style tectonics at 3.6 Ga ago.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
New Results Deepen the Mystery of Earth’s Early Magnetic Field
How was Earth’s early magnetic field produced? New experimental results and modeling show that the energy source could not have come from exsolution of lithophile elements from the core.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Lightning Had Difficulty Forming in Early Earth’s Atmosphere
Lightning could have sparked the beginnings of life, but the primordial atmosphere might have made it more difficult for lightning to initiate.
Posted inFeatures
The Young Earth Under the Cool Sun
How did our planet avoid being frozen solid during the early days of our solar system?
Posted inAGU News
How to Work in the Dark on Deep Time
Researchers who study the formation of Earth show how ingenuity can shed light on hidden moments of creation.
Posted inNews
Layered Zone Beneath Coral Sea Suggests Ancient Magma Ocean
Scientists studying South Pacific earthquakes suggest that an ultralow-velocity zone at the core-mantle boundary may be a remnant of a molten early Earth.
Posted inScience Updates
Rethinking the Search for the Origins of Life
Early Earth conditions and the chemistry that led to life were inextricably interwoven. Earth scientists and prebiotic chemists are working together in new ways to understand how life first emerged.
Posted inNews
A New Explanation for Organics on a Mars Rock That Fell to Earth
Organic molecules on a Martian meteorite have fueled nearly 30 years of scientific debate. New evidence suggests they were formed by Martian processes, offering more support for a once habitable environment on the Red Planet.
Posted inNews
How Much Did the Moon Heat Young Earth?
Tidal heating may have raised the surface temperature of early Earth and triggered global volcanism, a new study says.