Definition
Jack Hills is the name of a low range of hills located in the Murchison District of Western Australia, approximately 800 km north of Perth. Since 1986, the area has been internationally known as the site of the world’s oldest minerals. These are detrital zircon grains up to 4,404 Ma old.
Overview
A zircon grain with a portion recording an age of 4,404 ± 8 Ma (2σ) was extracted from a conglomerate on Eranondoo Hill in the central Jack Hills. Published in 2001 (Wilde et al. 2001), this age was ∼130 Ma older than the previous oldest known crystal on Earth, also reported from the same site in 1986 (Compston and Pidgeon 1986). Prior to that, the oldest known zircon crystals (∼4,150 Ma) were obtained from Mt Narryer, located ∼60 km southwest of Jack Hills (Froude et al. 1983).
Both Jack Hills and Mt Narryer are located in the Narryer Terrane, which occupies an area of ∼30,000 km2in the northwestern...
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References and Further Reading
Cavosie AJ, Wilde SA, Liu DY, Weiblen PW, Valley JW (2004) Internal Zoning and U-Th-Pb chemistry of Jack Hills detrital zircons: a mineral record of early Archean to Mesoproterozoic (4348–1576 Ma) magmatism. Precambrian Res 135:251–279
Cavosie AJ, Valley JW, Wilde SA, EIMF (2005) Magmatic δ18O in 4400–3900 Ma detrital zircons: a record of the alteration and recycling of crust in the early Archean. Earth Planet Sci Lett 235:663–681
Cavosie AJ, Valley JW, Wilde SA, EIMF (2006) Correlated microanalysis of zircon: trace element, d18O, and U–Th–Pb isotopic constraints on the igneous origin of complex >3900 Ma detrital grains. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 70:5601–5616
Compston W, Pidgeon RT (1986) Jack Hills, evidence of more very old detrital zircons in Western Australia. Nature 321:766–769
Froude DO, Ireland TR, Kinny PD, Williams IS, Compston W, Williams IR, Myers JS (1983) Ion microprobe identification of 4,100–4,200 Myr-old terrestrial zircons. Nature 304:616–618
Harrison TM, Blichert-Toft J, Müller W, Albarede F, Holden P, Mojzsis SJ (2005) Heterogeneous Hadean hafnium: evidence of continental crust at 4.4–4.5 Ga. Science 310:1947–1950
Kemp AIS, Wilde SA, Hawkesworth CJ, Coath CD, Nemchin A, Pidgeon RT, Vervoort JD, DuFrane SA (2010) Hadean crustal evolution revisited: new constraints from Pb-Hf systematics of the Jack Hills zircons. Earth Planet Sci Lett 296:45–56
Menneken M, Nemchin AA, Geisler T, Pidgeon RT, Wilde SA (2007) Discovery of oldest terrestrial diamond in zircon from Jack Hills, Western Australia. Nature 448:917–920
Nemchin AA, Whitehouse MJ, Menneken M, Geisler T, Pidgeon RT, Wilde SA (2008) A light carbon reservoir recorded in zircon-hosted diamond from Jack Hills. Nature 453:92–95
Nutman AP, Kinny PD, Compston W, Williams IS (1991) SHRIMP U–Pb zircon geochronology of the Narryer Gneiss Complex, Western Australia. Precambrian Res 52:275–300
Peck WH, Valley JW, Wilde SA, Graham CM (2001) Oxygen isotope ratios and rare Earth elements in 3.3–4.4 Ga zircons: ion microprobe evidence for high δ18O continental crust and oceans in the early Archean. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 65:4215–4229
Pidgeon RT, Wilde SA (1998) The interpretation of complex zircon U-Pb systems in Archaean granitoids and gneisses from the Jack Hills, Narryer Gneiss Terrane, Western Australia. Precambrian Res 91:309–332
Spaggiari CV, Pidgeon RT, Wilde SA (2007) The Jack Hills greenstone belt, Western Australia, Part 2: lithological relationships and implications for the deposition of >4.0 Ga detrital zircons. Precambrian Res 155:261–286
Ushikubo T, Kita NT, Cavosie AJ, Wilde SA, Rudnick RL, Valley JW (2009) Lithium in Jack Hills zircons: evidence for recycling of Earth’s earliest crust. Earth Planet Sci Lett 272:666–676
Valley JW (2005) A cool early Earth? Sci Am, Oct 2005, 58–65
Valley JW, Peck WH, King EM, Wilde SA (2002) A cool early Earth. Geology 30:351–354
Wilde SA, Spaggiari CV (2007) The Narryer Terrane, Western Australia: a review. In: Van Kranendonk MJ, Smithies RH, Bennett VC (eds) Earth’s oldest rocks, developments in Precambrian Geology, vol 15. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 275–304
Wilde SA, Pidgeon RT (1990) Geology of the Jack Hills metasedimentary rocks, In: Ho SE, Glover JE, Myers JS, Muhling J (eds), 3rd international Archaean symposium, Perth, excursion guidebook, vol 21. University of Western Australia Publication, Perth, pp 82–92
Wilde SA, Valley JW, Peck WH, Graham CM (2001) Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago. Nature 409:175–178
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Wilde, S.A. (2011). Jack Hills (Yilgarn, Western Australia). In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_834
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