Scientists have identified India as the location of the first landmass to emerge from Earth's primordial oceans.
This discovery, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pushes back the timeline of continental emergence by 700 million years, placing the event at approximately 3.2 billion years ago.
The groundbreaking study, conducted by an international team from India, Australia, and the United States, has focused on the ancient geological formations of the Singhbhum region in Jharkhand.
By examining the area's sandstone deposits, researchers have uncovered evidence of ancient river channels, tidal flats, and beaches dating back more than 3 billion years.
The research team, led by Dr. Choudhary, revealed how they pinpointed the earliest crust to contact the Earth's atmosphere.
“Our analysis of the sandstone provided a timeline, while the granite layers revealed the process behind the land’s emergence,” Choudhary explained.
The findings show that between 3.5 and 3.2 billion years ago, hot magma beneath the Earth’s crust caused parts of the Singhbhum craton to thicken and become enriched with lighter materials such as silica and quartz.
This geological process resulted in the craton becoming ‘physically thicker and chemically lighter’ compared to the denser surrounding rocks.
Consequently, it rose from the ocean like an iceberg, eventually forming the earliest landmass.
Over time, the crust thickened to about 50 kilometres, allowing it to float on the water’s surface.
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