Space Daily September 19, 2026 • 16:45

Ancient rocks from Western Australia suggest Earth was already dragging surface water into its mantle and using it to generate volcanoes 3.1 billion years ago — through a primitive recycling process that may have preceded modern plate tectonics - Space Daily

Ancient rocks from Western Australia suggest Earth was already dragging surface water into its mantle and using it to generate volcanoes 3.1 billion years ago — through a primitive recycling process that may have preceded modern plate tectonics - Space Daily

Earth's plumbing system may have begun working billions of years before we thought, with ancient volcanic rocks hinting that the planet was already recycling water deep underground during an era we assumed was geologically simpler.

Pillow lavas look like a heap of stone beanbags, slumped one over another where molten rock hit cold seawater and stiffened on the spot. The ones exposed across a stretch of Western Australia’s Pilba… [+5697 chars]

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