Acasta gneiss, oldest known exposed crustal rock in the world, billion years old, Northwest Territories , Canada, tonalite


Acasta Gneiss, the oldest rock in the world, is a tonalite gneiss in the Slave craton in Northwest Territories, Canada. The rock body is exposed on an island about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife. The rock of the outcrop was metamorphosed to billion years ago and is the oldest known intact crustal fragment on Earth. First described in 1989, it was named for the nearby Acasta River east of Great Bear Lake. The Acasta outcrop is found in a remote area of the Tłı̨chǫ people land settlement. It is the oldest known exposed rock in the world


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