New research explains how meteorites called aubrites may actually be shattered pieces of the planet closest to the sun from the early days of the solar system.
A meteorite found in the Sahara Desert last year – specifically Adrar, Algeria – was actually part of a protoplanet (a rocky body in the process of forming into a planet) in our solar system and dates back before Earth was even formed. The piece of volcanic rock, which has been named Erg Chech 002 (or EC 002), is more than a million years older than the previous-oldest meteorite ever found.
According to the Lunar and Planetary Institute, the fragments of EC 002 were “relatively coarse grained, tan and beige” with some crystals that were “larger green, yellow-green and less commonly yellow-brown”.
It is composed of a rock called andesite that is pretty much only found in subduction zones here on Earth (locations where tectonic plates collided with each other that resulted with one of them going underneath the other). Interestingly, meteorites very rarely contain andesite and are mostly created by a different volcanic rock called basalt. Detailed analysis of the meteorite
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This is the oldest rock to be retrieved from Earth - a million years older than the previous record-holding rock
Scientists recently discovered the oldest volcanic rock on our planet. In 2020, the volcanic rock was discovered in the Sahara desert and can be dated back to a long time ago, precisely 2 million years after the creation of the solar system as we know it today, or simply 4.6 billion years ago!
Based on this dateline, this is the oldest rock to be retrieved from Earth - a million years older than the previous record-holding rock. Volcanic rocks are considered building blocks of planets.
Scientists have discovered the oldest volcanic rock on the planet. The oldest volcanic rock, the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara desert in 2020.