Zircons form as a mineral within certain magmas as ... Bear in mind, this particular zircon crystal is absolutely tiny, barely visible to the naked eye. Despite its microscopic size, however ...

A 4.4 billion-year-old zircon crystal is providing new insight into how the early Earth cooled from a ball of magma and formed continents just 160 million years after the formation of our solar ...

Zircon crystals can survive geological processes such as erosion and metamorphism, making them invaluable for geological studies and radiometric dating. Credit: Robert Simmon, based on data from ...