Greenlandite (fuchsite-quartz gneiss), Greenland

Garnet paragneiss Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, 4

The Eoarchean (; also spelled Eoarchaean) is the first era of the

Archean The Archean Eon ( , also spelled Archaean or Archæan) is the second of four geologic eons of Earth's history, representing the time from . The Archean was preceded by the Hadean Eon and followed by the Proterozoic. The Earth during the Arc ...

Eon of the

geologic record The geologic record in stratigraphy, paleontology and other natural sciences refers to the entirety of the layers of rock strata. That is, deposits laid down by volcanism or by deposition of sediment derived from weathering detritus (clays, sand ...

. It spans 400 million years, from the end of the Hadean Eon 4 billion years ago (4000 Mya) to the start of the Paleoarchean Era 3600 Mya. The beginnings of life on Earth have been dated to this era and evidence of

cyanobacteria Cyanobacteria (), also known as Cyanophyta, are a phylum of gram-negative bacteria that obtain energy via photosynthesis. The name ''cyanobacteria'' refers to their color (), which similarly forms the basis of cyanobacteria's common name, bl ...

date to 3500 Mya, comparatively shortly after the Eoarchean. At that time, the

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A ...

was without oxygen and the pressure values ranged from 10 to 100

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

(around 10 to 100 times the atmospheric pressure today).

Chronology

The Eoarchean Era was formerly officially unnamed and informally referred to as the first part of the ''Early Archean'' Eon (which is now an obsolete name) alongside the Paleoarchean Era. The

International Commission on Stratigraphy The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), sometimes referred to unofficially as the "International Stratigraphic Commission", is a daughter or major subcommittee grade scientific daughter organization that concerns itself with stratigr ...

now officially recognizes the Eoarchean Era as the first part of the Archaean Eon, preceded by the

Hadean The Hadean ( ) is a geologic eon of Earth history preceding the Archean. On Earth, the Hadean began with the planet's formation about 4.54 billion years ago (although the start of the Hadean is defined as the age of the oldest solid materia ...

Eon, during which the Earth is believed to have been essentially molten. The Eoarchaean's lower boundary or starting point of 4

Gya A billion years or giga-annum (109 years) is a unit of time on the petasecond scale, more precisely equal to seconds (or simply 1,000,000,000 years). It is sometimes abbreviated Gy, Ga ("giga-annum"), Byr and variants. The abbreviations Gya or ...

(4 billion years ago) is officially recognized by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. The name comes from two

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words: ' (dawn) and ' (ancient). The first supercontinent candidate Vaalbara appeared around the end of this period at about .

Geology

The beginning of the Eoarchean is characterized by heavy

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...

bombardment within the

Inner Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

: the

Late Heavy Bombardment The Late Heavy Bombardment (LHB), or lunar cataclysm, is a hypothesized event thought to have occurred approximately 4.1 to 3.8 billion years (Ga) ago, at a time corresponding to the Neohadean and Eoarchean eras on Earth. According to the hypot ...

. The largest Eoarchean rock formation is the Isua Greenstone Belt on the south-west coast of Greenland, which dates from 3.8 billion years. The Acasta Gneiss within the

Canadian Shield The Canadian Shield (french: Bouclier canadien ), also called the Laurentian Plateau, is a geologic shield, a large area of exposed Precambrian igneous and high-grade metamorphic rocks. It forms the North American Craton (or Laurentia), the anc ...

have been dated to be 4,031 Ma and are therefore the oldest preserved rock formations. In 2008, another rock formation was discovered in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt in northern Québec, Canada which has been dated to be . These formations are presently under intense investigation.

Atmosphere

3,850 million years old Greenland

apatite Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of OH−, F− and Cl− ions, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of the three most common ...

shows evidence of

Carbon-12 Carbon-12 (12C) is the most abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon ( carbon-13 being the other), amounting to 98.93% of element carbon on Earth; its abundance is due to the triple-alpha process by which it is created in stars. Carbon- ...

enrichment. This has sparked a debate whether there might have been photosynthetic life before 3.8 billion years.

Proposed subdivisions

*Eoarchean Era — 4031–3600 Mya **Acastan Period — 4031–3810 Mya **Isuan Period — 3810–3600 Mya

References

External links

*
Taxonconcept.stratigraphy.ne: A short fact sheet on the Eoarchean
{{Geological history, c *01 Geological eras Precambrian geochronology