zircon

The new research focused on tiny traces of several elements in the old zircons.

Armstrong plans to continue studying zircons, in the hopes of finding more ways to exploit them for details about ancient quakes.

Most of the world’s Hadean zircons have been found in a just a dozen sites, and most of those are from a site in Australia.

For the zircons, the team measured the decay of uranium to lead, and in the sand, the researchers compared the abundances of radioactive argon isotopes with stable ones.

The study identified grains of the mineral zircon in a Martian meteorite that appeared to be “shocked” by high pressures, indicating large impacts on the Martian surface.

In mineralogy, the term is applied to crystallised yellow or brown zircon.

Zircon is also the source of oxide of zirconium used in making mantles for certain incandescent lights.

Other minerals, except apatite, zircon and magnetite, are typically absent.

Jargon or Zircon is a stone having a superficial resemblance to a diamond.

Zircon is itself a species of mineral and is a silicate of zirconium.