Jack Hills

For the astronomer, see Jack G. Hills.

Satellite image

Location of the Jack Hills in Australia

The Jack Hills are a range of hills in Mid West Western Australia. They are best known as the source of the oldest material of terrestrial origin found to date: zircons that formed around 4.390.000.000 years ago. These zircons have enabled ground-breaking research into the conditions on earth in the Hadean eon. In 2015, "remains of biotic life" were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in the Jack Hills of Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on Earth ... then it could be common in the universe."

Geography

They are located on the border of the Shire of Murchison and the Shire of Meekatharra, south of the Murchison River, about 800 kilometres (500 mi) north of Perth.

Geology

The Jack Hills are located in the Narryer Gneiss Terrane of the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, and comprise an 80 kilometres (50 mi) long northeast-trending belt of folded and metamorphosed supracrustal rocks.

Sedimentary siliciclastic rocks, interpreted as alluvial fan-delta deposits, are the major lithology. Minor mafic/ultramafic rocks and banded iron formation (BIF) are also found in the sequence. The overall sequence is generally considered to be a granulite gneiss, which has undergone multiple deformations and multiple metamorphic episodes. The protolith age of the Narryer Gneiss Terrane is variable, but generally considered to be in excess of 3.6 Ga (billion years).

Oldest zircons on earth

Detrital zircons with ages greater than 4 billion years old have been found in these rocks, and a 4,404 +/-8 million year old zircon was found at Erawandoo Hill; this is the oldest dated material originating on Earth; the date is in the Cryptic era of the Hadean eon. They were found within a unit of the supracrustal sequence, a metamorphosed conglomerate considered to have an age ~3.0 Ga. Given the detrital nature of the rock unit, the zircons are sourced from pre-existing rocks which were then weathered and the resultant sediment deposited as sedimentary rock.

The zircons and various aspects of their geochemistry provide evidence for the existence of continental-type crust on the surface of the earth during the Hadean eon, contrasting with earlier ideas on the earliest phase of Earth's history. Additionally, oxygen isotopic ratios in the zircons provide evidence for the presence of liquid water on the surface, if not a water ocean; also contrasting with earlier ideas on Earth's history. The theory of humid and cool conditions before the Late Heavy Bombardment has been promoted as Cool Early Earth.

Economic geology

The Jack Hills banded iron formation is the site of a non-operating minor iron ore mine owned by Mitsubishi Development Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation, which in the past exported up to 3 million tonnes per annum of high grade detrital hematite iron ore via the port of Geraldton.

Other companies operating in the area are also planning major magnetite BIF-based iron ore mines.

Conservation

Because of their importance as a geology research site, the Jack Hills were nominated to the Register of the National Estate in 2003. As of 2009, they have an "Interim Listing", which means they have been formally proposed for inclusion in the Register.