{"id":52360,"date":"2025-06-28T14:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T08:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=52360"},"modified":"2025-06-28T16:13:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T10:43:23","slug":"nuvvuagittuq-greenstone-belt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/nuvvuagittuq-greenstone-belt\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt Latest News<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, scientists determined that rocks from the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt are approximately 4.16 billion years old, using two independent radioactive dating methods.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>About Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is a region of ancient rock formations located on the <\/span><b>eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec, Canada<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These rocks have been known for their <\/span><b>exceptional age<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>unique geological features<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, making the region a critical site for studies of <\/span><b>Earth\u2019s early history<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This makes them <\/span><b>potentially the oldest known rocks on Earth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, challenging earlier estimates and rivalling other ancient formations like the <\/span><b>Acasta Gneiss Complex<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (\u223c4 billion years old).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Scientific Significance<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Researchers used <\/span><b>radiometric dating<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which tracks the <\/span><b>decay of radioactive isotopes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> over time.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earth formed around <\/span><b>4.5 billion years ago<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but most early rocks were <\/span><b>destroyed or transformed<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> due to <\/span><b>tectonic activity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>melting<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rocks older than <\/span><b>4 billion years<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are <\/span><b>extremely rare<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and provide a <\/span><b>window into the planet&#8217;s earliest crust<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The rock site lies on <\/span><b>Inuit tribal land<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in <\/span><b>Inukjuak, Nunavik<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Due to <\/span><b>environmental damage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from earlier research and reports of <\/span><b>rock samples being sold online<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>local Inuit community has restricted further sampling<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The community, led by the <\/span><b>Pituvik Landholding Corporation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, seeks to collaborate with scientists to create a <\/span><b>provincial park<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to balance <\/span><b>research and conservation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>What are Ultramafic Rocks?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Ultramafic rocks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are <\/span><b>dark-colored igneous or meta-igneous rocks<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> rich in <\/span><b>Magnesium oxide (MgO)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Iron oxide (FeO)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, but <\/span><b>low in Silica.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They contain <\/span><b>over 90% mafic minerals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and are <\/span><b>poor in potassium<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Earth\u2019s mantle<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is believed to be composed predominantly of <\/span><b>ultramafic rock types<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These rocks are commonly found in <\/span><b>orogenic (mountain-forming) belts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and can offer insights into <\/span><b>mantle composition<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>deep Earth processes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/international\/these-canadian-rocks-may-be-oldest-on-earth\/article69743687.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt is a region of ancient rock formations located on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in Quebec, Canada. Read more about Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone Belt, Location, Age, Formation, Significance, News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1143,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-52360","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-nuvvuagittuq-greenstone-belt","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52360"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52360\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52360"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52360"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52360"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}