Cathodoluminescence images of Jack Hills zircon showing zoned igneous cores and bright metamorphic rims. CREDIT: Shane K. Houchin

Plate tectonics created the Earth as we know it. Australian zircons some 4 billion years old suggest that mantle convection was established in the Hadean Eon and signs of large-scale plate underthrusting appear in the Archean Eon. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/1cBe50Yq7sX

Senior Scientist / Lab Manager in Spectroscopy for High Pressure/Temperature Experiments

The Institute of Geochemistry and Petrology at ETH Zurich is looking for a Senior Scientist / Lab Manager in Spectroscopy for High Pressure/Temperature Experiments to maintain and develop the spectroscopic and part of the experimental equipment in our labs. #jobalert

www.jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/11375

Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was strongly sex biased Sex biases in admixture and other demographic processes are recurrent features throughout human evolution. For admixture between Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans (AMHs), sex bias has been p...

When Neanderthals and ancient modern humans interbred, the pairings were mostly between male Neanderthals and female humans, according to a new Science study.

This finding helps explain why Neanderthal ancestry present in most humans is unevenly distributed. https://scim.ag/4cQYpIL

Postdoctoral Fellow in Volcanology and Magmatic Processes

The Volcanology and Magmatic Petrology group at ETH Zurich is looking for a Postdoctoral Fellow in Volcanology and Magmatic Processes to develop and lead an independent research programme in magmatic petrology, volcanology, and/or geochronology. #postdoc #jobalert

www.jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/11402

A 'cosmic clock' in tiny crystals reveals the rise and fall of Australia's ancient landscapes Australia's iconic red landscapes have been home to Aboriginal culture and recorded in songlines for tens of thousands of years. But further clues to just how ancient this landscape is come from far b...

This is nice! A new surface dating tool using cosmogenic crypton in zircons. What's not to love!? 🌌💥🪨🏞️

When did humanity take its first step? Scientists say they now know. A new analysis of fossils uncovered in Central Africa offers additional evidence that a human ancestor walked upright 7 million years ago.

A new analysis of fossils uncovered in Central Africa offers additional evidence that a human ancestor walked upright 7 million years ago, pushing back the date at which early hominins stood tall by about a million years.

Interlaboratory reproducibility of ID-TIMS U–Pb geochronology evaluated with a pre-spiked natural zircon solution Abstract. The highest precision and accuracy in U–Pb geochronology is achieved using isotope dilution thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (ID-TIMS), a technique which owes its reliability to precise ...

Happy to share the long-awaited results of our community experiment comparing high-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb lab performance🧪⚒️
We do pretty well but as ever there is room for improvement 🤓 Stay tuned!

doi.org/10.5194/gchr...

The age and early evolution of the Moon revealed by the Rb-Sr systematics of lunar ferroan anorthosites The formation of the Moon by a giant impact of an object called Theia onto proto-Earth marks the end of the main stage of Earth’s accretion. However, …

Interesting new Rb-Sr data and summary of the chronology of #Moon formation 🧪⚒️

tinyurl.com/2ztta42d

Submarine ash megabed fed by far-traveled, shoreline-crossing pyroclastic currents from a large explosive volcanic eruption Volcanic ash from an eruption in Greece poured into the sea, forming a bed 200 m thick in a submarine basin far from the volcano.

An unexpected discovery of IODP Exp 398! 200 m of ash from the Kos Plateau Tuff eruption buried in the basins around Santorini, read how it got there in our new paper in Science Advances 🌋
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Evidence for Hadean mafic intrusions in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, Canada Many questions remain regarding Earth’s earliest crust owing to the rarity of Hadean (>4.03 billion-year-old) rocks and minerals. The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt (NGB) in Canada may be the only known...

The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt— a complex geological sequence in northeastern Canada—harbors surviving fragments of Earth’s oldest crust, dating back to ~4.16 billion years old, according to a new Science study.

Learn more: scim.ag/3FXN8sq

Thousands buried in 17th century Italian crypt reveal lives of working poor Remains recovered from beneath a Milan hospital shed light on health, diet, and drug habits during the 1600s

1456, the Duke of Milan established a medical institution dedicated to caring for the city’s poor and sick on a scale unprecedented in Europe.

Admission was based on lack of income, not religious affiliation.

It was the first secular hospital in Europe..

🧪

www.science.org/content/arti...

Controls on zircon age distributions in volcanic, porphyry and plutonic rocks Abstract. The distribution of zircon crystallisation ages in igneous rocks has been proposed to provide insights into the dynamics of underlying magma reservoirs. However, the ability to interpret mag...

New study in GChron led by Chetan Nathwani - looking at what controls the shape of #zircon U-Pb date distributions in magmatic rocks and what meaningful info they can provide ⚒️🧪

gchron.copernicus.org/articles/7/1...

Postdoc publications and citations link to academic retention and faculty success | PNAS Postdoctoral training is a career stage often described as a demanding and anxiety-laden time when many promising PhDs see their academic dreams sl...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Postdoc (or PhD) position in Experimental Geochemistry The Experimental Planetology Group of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (D-EAPS) invites applications for a 2-yr post-doctoral position on the experimental determination of liquid iron…

#postdoc (or #phd) #jobalert
The Experimental Planetology research group at @ethzurich.bsky.social is offering a Postdoc in Experimental Geochemistry and on the determination of liquid iron alloy densities with application to the Moon's and other planets core.

Cave folks - here some must-read for your weekend! 😛#speleothem, #caves, #volcano, #climate - what else you want?! 👇 @pucicu.de @olakwiecien3.bsky.social @cavesandclimate.bsky.social

🧪

New study in PNAS: Apollo samples reveal that KREEP, the magma left after the #Moon was >99% solidified, formed 4.43 billion years ago. 🌘 This implies the Moon was born no later than ca. 140 My after the solar system’s birth. 🧪 ⚒️ @eth-eaps.bsky.social

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

So how small are the zircons that we date in the lab? Here's a Fish Canyon Tuff zircon on a $5 bill for comparison!

This wintry scene was captured from southern Poland on the northern hemisphere's long solstice night. Otherwise unseen nebulae hang in the sky, revealed by the camera modified to record red hydrogen-alpha light. The nebulae lie near the edge of the Orion molecular cloud and join the Hunter's familiar belt stars and bright giants Betelgeuse and Rigel. Eye of Taurus the Bull, yellowish Aldebaran anchors the V-shaped Hyades star cluster near top center. Still, near opposition in planet Earth's sky, the Solar System's ruling gas giant Jupiter is the brightest celestial beacon above this horizon's snowy peaks.

Clever composite photo lets you see a side of the universe normally hidden to human vision. A camera tuned to hydrogen-alpha light reveals glorious interstellar clouds swirling around the familiar stars of the constellation Orion.
(Photo: Włodzimierz Bubak) 🔭🧪

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap24122...

Dawid Szymanowski ‪ETH Zürich‬ - ‪‪Cited by 924‬‬ - ‪geology‬ - ‪geochronology‬ - ‪geochemistry‬ - ‪petrology‬

Hi! Would love to be added:

scholar.google.ch/citations?us...