Zircon is a mineral that exists in nature from colorless to reddish-brown, yellow, green or blue. Zircon may also be transparent making its visual appearance similar to a diamond. Zircon is a common ...

Zircon crystals from Down Under revealed when the plates emerged. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Earth's tectonic plates have ...

Note to editors: Photos and other associated press materials can be found via Dropbox here (password: tectonics). Scientists led by Michael Ackerson, a research geologist at the Smithsonian’s National ...

Los Angeles may be a city obsessed with youth, but it is also home to the world’s largest collection of Hadean zircons — the oldest known material on Earth. Hadean zircons are tiny — about the same ...

There is a lot of confusion between zircons, a mined mineral, and cubic zirconia, an inexpensive synthetic crystal. But jewelry designers know the difference. The ranks of independent designers who ...

The findings were buried beneath billions of years of Earth history. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Earth's constantly moving ...

Where the Colorado River today is carving the Grand Canyon, there once flowed another river in the opposite direction, according to a new study comparing tiny grains of the mineral, zircon, in Utah ...

The oldest known Earth stuff that remains on the surface of our planet is a mineral that's been called the "Time Lord" because it's so incredibly good at keeping geologic time. The mineral is zircon, ...

Scientists have long understood that plate tectonics, the drift of separate, rigid plates that make up the Earth’s crust, formed continents and mountains and was crucial to the evolution of the planet ...

The research reveals how one of Earth’s defining geologic features likely formed — and set the stage for the emergence of life Abigail Eisenstadt Zircons are the oldest minerals in the world and come ...

Scientists provide new evidence that modern plate tectonics, a defining feature of Earth and its unique ability to support life, emerged roughly 3.6 billion years ago. The study uses zircons, the ...