![]() That is really far back, but these rocks in Canada don't get us all the way back to where it all began. The processes of plate tectonics have altered and recycled the Earth so much over it's history that the oldest known whole rock on the surface gets us to 4.28 billion years. A good guess, but a tricky one because Earth's surface is so dynamic. One idea might be the Earth's oldest rocks. If we want to know how old the planet is, we need to think about what we would date ( usually using radioactive elements and their decay) to get us back that far. The Earth formed from the spinning cloud of dust and gas that formed our Sun and all the solid debris around it. When we talk about the age of the Earth, we're really thinking about the age of the solar system as well.
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