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The oldest rocks on Earth have been discovered in Canada, offering scientists a glimpse at the origins of the planet, armounced scientists in a study to be published Friday.
科學(xué)家將會(huì)在本周五發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)研究報(bào)告中公布，他們?cè)诩幽么蟀l(fā)現(xiàn)了目前地球上最古老的巖石，這一發(fā)現(xiàn)為科學(xué)家研究地球的起源提供了新的線索。
The rocks, found in a belt of ancient bedrock in Quebec, are eshmated to be 4.28 billion years old.
這些巖石是在加拿大魁北克省的一個(gè)古巖床帶發(fā)現(xiàn)的，據(jù)估計(jì)距今已有42.8億年的歷史。
The find pushes back the age of the most ancient discovered remnants ofthe Earth's crust by 300 million years.
這—發(fā)現(xiàn)將地殼上最古老殘留物的年代又向前推了3億年。
“Our discovery opens the door to further unlock the secrets ofthe Earth's beginnings," said Jonathan O'Neil, lead author ofthe study and a geologist at Gill Univarsity in Montreal, who collected and analyzed the rocks.
研究報(bào)告主要撰寫(xiě)者、蒙特利爾邁克基爾大學(xué)的地質(zhì)學(xué)家喬納森.奧尼爾對(duì)這些巖石進(jìn)行了收集和分析，他說(shuō)：“我們的發(fā)現(xiàn)為進(jìn)一步探索地球的起源打開(kāi)了-一扇門(mén)。”
"Geologists now have a new playground to explore how and when life began, what the atmosphere may have looked like, and when the first continent formed," said o'Neil.
“地質(zhì)學(xué)家現(xiàn)在有了一個(gè)去探究生命何時(shí)以及如何起源、當(dāng)時(shí)的大氣狀況以及第一塊大陸何時(shí)形成等問(wèn)題的新的平臺(tái)�！�
The rocks also suggest that continents formed very early in the Earth's history, said Richard Carlson at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, coauthor of the study, to be published in the September 26 edition of the journal Science.
研究報(bào)告撰寫(xiě)者、華盛頓卡內(nèi)基研究所的理查德·卡爾森說(shuō)，這些巖石還說(shuō)明，陸地在很早的時(shí)期就形成了,該研究將在9月26日的《科學(xué)》期刊上發(fā)表。
Estimates of the rocks' age were made using isotopic dating, a technique which can only be used to date rocks roughly 4.1 billion years old or older.
這些巖石的年齡是經(jīng)過(guò)“同位素測(cè)年法”測(cè)定出來(lái)的。同位素測(cè)年法只能夠用于測(cè)定至少有41億年歷史的巖石的年代。
This is the first time the technique has been used to date terrestrial rocks, because nothing else this old has ever been discovered on Ealrth.
這一方法首次被用于測(cè)定陸地巖石的年代，因?yàn)橹霸诘厍蛏线�沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)過(guò)這么古老的東西。
The specimens were found in an area known as the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt, along the eastern shore of Hudson Bay in northern Quebec, a region recognized in 2001 as being a potential site for finding ancient rocks,
這些巖石發(fā)現(xiàn)于魁北克省北部哈德森灣東海岸沿線的Nuvvuagit-tuq綠石帶口2001年，地質(zhì)學(xué)家曾鑒定有望在這地區(qū)發(fā)現(xiàn)古巖石。