News From the Field

Silver Tells a Volatile Story of Earth's Origin


May 13, 2010

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Tiny variations in the isotopic composition of silver in meteorites and Earth rocks are helping scientists put together a timetable of how our planet was assembled beginning 4.568 billion years ago. The new study, published in the journal Science, indicates that water and other key volatiles may have been present in at least some of Earth's original building blocks, rather than acquired later from comets, as some scientists have suggested.Full Story

Source
Carnegie Institution

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