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Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt

A small belt of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary rock on the Hudson Bay shore of Quebec, among the oldest surface rocks on Earth. It is at least 3.75 billion years old; whether it reaches back to about 4.3 billion years, and whether it holds the oldest fossils, is still argued over.

Dated events and their evidence

• about 4,321,000,000 years ago disputed
  neodymium isotope work published in 2012 gives about 4.32 billion years for the Ujaraaluk unit; zircon studies read the signal as inherited from older Hadean crust source
• about 3,750,000,000 years ago mainstream
  minimum age of about 3.75 billion years, from zircons in granitic intrusions that cut the belt; widely accepted source
• 2017 CE disputed
  hematite filaments and tubes in the belt's jasper are reported as possible microfossils, which would be the oldest trace of life; they may be abiotic source
• 2025 CE mainstream
  the local Inuit community revokes sampling permits, citing damage from excessive sampling source

Where

58.3000° N, 77.7500° W

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuvvuagittuq_Greenstone_Belt
• https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2012.07.009
• https://doi.org/10.2475/09.2013.02
• https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abm2296
• https://ozgeology.com/blogs/news/the-oldest-rocks-on-earth-what-they-reveal-about-early-planetary-history

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