Para determinar cómo los elementos cruciales para el desarrollo de la vida llegaron a la Tierra, los científicos estudian los gases nobles. Actualmente, métodos mejorados traen consigo nuevos indicios a partir del criptón, el gas noble más enigmático.
early Earth
Early Life Learned to Love Oxygen Long Before It Was Cool
Laboratory experiments show that earthquakes may have helped early life evolve in an oxygen-free world.
Krypton Isotopes Provide New Clues to Planets’ Pasts
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Young Earth Under the Cool Sun
How did our planet avoid being frozen solid during the early days of our solar system?
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.
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.
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.
