The world's oldest rocks are spread across the globe and paint a picture of Earth's turbulent early history. Here are some of ...

A range of ancient crystals comes from the Jack Hills in Western Australia's midwest. Chemical clues contained in the Zircon crystals revealed that the hot, molten rocks in which they originated ...

Zircon crystals are durable; they can survive even when the rocks around them are destroyed, eroded or recycled back into Earth's middle layer. Zircons contain radioactive uranium, which decays ...

Some of the pieces that make up the meteorite are tiny crystals of zircon – an absolute goldmine for geologists wanting to study the history of Mars, and the history of the meteorite itself.