The oldest crystals in the world show evidence of exposure to both fresh and salty water during their formation, a new study reports. This indicates that the very early Earth had both oceans and land on which rainwater could collect. Although hellish in many ways, it suggests a planet far more like the one we know today than anything else in the Solar System, and opportunities for life to evolve.Most relics of the early Earth have long since been recycled through the mantle, leaving nothing to investigate. The Jack Hills in Western Australia hold zircon crystals up to 4.4 billion years old. They’re small, and bonded into considerably younger sedimentary rocks, but these are the oldest minerals on the planet, and offer crucial hints about the state of the Earth when they were formed.Many zircons show evidence of having formed in water, and the type of oxygen within them reveals that water’s nature. The oceans contain water primarily formed with oxygen-16 atoms, but also with some oxygen-18. “When water evaporates, oxygen-16 evaporates more,” Dr Hugo Olierook of Curtin University told IFLScience, as it’s easier for the lighter molecules to escape. “It’s mostly controlled by temperatures, closer to poles it gets even lighter.” When the evaporated molecules fall as rain, the resulting lakes have reduced oxygen-18 abundance. Billions of years later, Olierook is part of a team that has read the type of water in which the zircons formed from their isotope ratio. The vast majority of the Jack Hills zircons the team studied were either formed inside the Earth, without exposure to water at all, or under the ocean. However, a small proportion have isotope values consistent with forming in rainwater instead. Notably, all of these within the studied sample date to two periods of time: a narrow band around 3.4-billion-years-ago, and from 3.9-4.02-billion-years-ago.Today the Jack Hills are a rocky and dry region, but in the early Earth most formed under the oceans, while some supported freshwater lakes.Image Courtesy of Simon WildePreviously, the oldest geological record of a water cycle came from 3.2 billion years ago. Geologists were confident the cycle started well before this, but couldn’t know how long before. “Around the year 2000, the big theory was that 4 billion years ago the Earth was completely dry,” Olierook told IFLScience. “It was desolate landscape, the sky was orange, the ground was brown. Then in 2001 evidence of water more than 4 billion years ago was found. We didn’t know the composition, but it was exciting enough to change the paradigm.” This caused a complete reversal, with the general assumption being the entire Earth at the time was probably covered by a global ocean, with at most small islands poking through.However, the work Olierook and his colleagues have done demonstrates that, at the time, there must have been some land where freshwater lakes could form, otherwise any rain would have mixed with seawater without changing the isotopic ratio.The fact that freshwater zircons are so rare may indicate such land was not particularly abundant, but that only tells the story at one spot on the globe. “Around 5-10 percent of the Jack Hills zircons are 4 billion years old or older," Olierook told IFLScience. “The next highest proportion anywhere else is one in 10,000.” This, he acknowledged ruefully, “Does bias our understanding of the early Earth.” Perhaps large dry areas existed at the time half a world away, and have been recycled through the mantle since.The absence of freshwater zircons before 4.1-billion-years-ago, or between the two periods, also doesn’t prove land didn’t exist at those times. It may simply be missing from the limited sample the team had to work with.Debate continues as to whether life emerged around hydrothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean, or in a “warm little pond”, as Darwin proposed. This work demonstrates both were present from very early on to make either option possible.The study is published in Nature Geoscience.

What is Prismatic in Destiny 2? Prismatic is the brand-new subclass introduced with The Final Shape, the conclusion to the ten-year Light and Dark saga. Unlike previous subclasses, it’s not a whole new element. Instead, the key focus for Prismatic is on breaking down barriers between existing abilities, letting you combine them in new and exciting ways. It’s also introducing three new Supers, one per class, alongside a few new mechanics, including an “elemental decoupling” to allow previously disparate effects to interact. One of Prismatic’s key new mechanics is Transcendence. As you deal Light or Dark damage, or debuff enemies, you’ll fill the relevant Light or Dark portion of the new Transcendence meter. Kinetic weapons fill both sides, albeit at a reduced rate, and once one side is full, it’ll fill the other faster. Once both sides are full, you can activate Transcendence. This state gives you some big bonuses to ability recharge rate, weapon damage, damage resistance, the ability to shatter Witness shields, and class-specific grenades that entwine both Light and Dark with new, explosive results. It’ll tie in with all the new exciting changes and content coming to Destiny 2 that you can read all about in our The Final Shape preview. Continue reading Destiny 2 Prismatic subclass guide MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Destiny 2 classes, Destiny 2 Lightfall review, Destiny 2 builds

Team Fortress 2 has dropped to 'Mostly Negative' Steam reviews for the first time in history, as players launch a campaign calling on Valve to fix the ongoing aimbot problem. The 'SaveTF2' petition, which has accrued almost 200,000 signatures, describes the long-running FPS as “nearly unplayable,” and the community has taken to Valve’s storefront in an effort to make their voices heard. Continue reading Team Fortress 2 drops to ‘Mostly Negative’ on Steam for the first time MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games, Best old games, Best multiplayer games

Image: Aptoide / The Verge Aptoide, the popular Google Play alternative for Android devices, is launching a third-party iOS app store in the European Union — the first focused entirely on gaming since the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules came into effect. Aptoide’s iOS game store is being released via a closed launch on Thursday, with access initially restricted to users with invitation-only access codes. Aptoide says it has a waiting list of 20,000 signups and plans to issue between 500 to 1,000 codes per day, with the limited launch enabling the platform to monitor feedback from early adopters. The Aptoide iOS store will launch with seven games — a fairly standard ensemble of popular activities like Solitaire, Charades, and Mahjong — but the company says... Continue reading…

'Teen Rex' is about to go on display for the first time and appear in a new T. rex documentary, thanks to a discovery made by three young boys.

An atmospheric phenomenon known as STEVE has a secret twin that appears before the break of dawn and flows in the opposite direction, new research finds.

On 21 November 2022, former Pfizer scientist Dr. Mike Yeadon joined the World Council for Health to discuss the truth behind the depopulation agenda.  Recently Gaz shared a “flashback” with a video […]

by Chris Menahan, Information Liberation: Most people in the West are familiar with the biblical story of Moses. In this tale, a spiritual leader, chosen by God, leads his people out of Egypt to the promised land. The Israelites are saved. God provides Moses with a list of commandments that they are to live by […]