Abstract
There has been much debate on the age of metamorphosed sedimentary rocks from West Greenland which contain the oldest putative terrestrial biomarkers. Recent evidence is summarised here showing that these rocks were deposited within the age range ca. 3.75–3.65 Gyr, and are at least 50–150 million years younger than the termination of the period of lunar and, by implication, terrestrial bombardment at ca. 3.8 Gyr, widely regarded as capable of frustrating the origin and survival of earliest life.
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Moorbath, S. (2001). Geological and Geochronological Constraints for the Age of the Oldest Putative Biomarkers in the Early Archaean Rocks of West Greenland. In: Chela-Flores, J., Owen, T., Raulin, F. (eds) First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1017-7_38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1017-7_38
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