#pilbara craton

[themightyfoo]

In the northwest corner of Australia lies the Pilbara Craton, which is home to some of the oldest surviving surface rocks on Earth. It dates from the Archaean Eon, and is estimated to be 2.7 to 3.8 billion years old. Aboriginal peoples believe life originated here. Evidence of the earliest known life on land was found here, in 3.48 billion year old geyserite rocks. Pilbara contains an incredible diversity of subterranean life.

Even older are the Jack Hills on the west coast of Australia; they contain zircons dating from the Hadean Eon, 4.4 billion years ago.

Respect your Mother Earth.

[osmiumpenguin]

I was nerdsniped this evening by a desire to trace the etymology of Vaalbara — the hypothetical world's first continent, which formed about 3.6 billion years ago.

Well, to begin with, the name “Vaalbara” turns out to be a portmanteau of the two surviving cratons — Kaapvaal in South Africa and Pilbara in Australia — whose age & other geological similarities justify the hypothesis that Vaalbara ever existed in the first place.

So. "Kaapvaal," first. This is another portmanteau! As far as I can tell, the Kaapvaal Craton was given that name by a geologist named D.A. Pretorius in 1964. At the time, South Africa had four provinces (along with a variety of apartheid "homelands" which didn't always get named on maps, offered government services, or extended human rights) … and the craton spanned two of these provinces: Kaap de Goede Hoop and Transvaal. Pretorius smashed them together.

All right then. Two more names to research.

Well, "Kaap de Goede Hoop" just means "Cape of Good Hope" in Dutch. It's a specific cape on the southern coast of South Africa, which was named Cabo da Boa Esperança by King John II of Portugal because he felt a lot of good hope about making Portugal rich if he could control a sea route to India. Every other European empire agreed, and translated the name into their own languages. Eventually the Dutch named a colony after the cape; the colony became a founding province of the Union of South Africa; and the province survived into the Republic of South Africa for long enough that Pretorius used its name.

"Transvaal," meanwhile, comes from mashing Trans — that Latin prefix we all know and love — against the Vaalrivier, or Vaal River. I'm sure I don't need to remind any of you that "trans" means "on the other side of," as contrasted with "cis," meaning "on the same side of," and the Roman Empire used both prefixes all the time when describing rivers and mountain ranges. Well, back when this province was named, it was the Dutch colony on the other side of the Vaal River.

So where did the "Vaalrivier" get its name? It translates from the Dutch as "drab river," and it turns out that's correct: the name is a Dutch translation of the Khoekhoe ǀHai!garib, precisely meaning "drab" (ǀHai) "river" (!garib). Apparently the colour of the water is very boring and silty.

So that's the "Vaal" half of Vaalbara. Start with the Khoekhoe word for "drab," append the Khoekhoe word for "river," then translate to Dutch, drop the "river" again but prepend the Latin prefix for "on the other side," then drop the prefix again but prepend the Dutch translation of the Portuguese for "cape of good hope," except without the "of good hope," and finally drop the "cape" in preparation for mashing up with another word entirely. You end up with the Dutch word for "drab."

ǀHai = vaal = drab

!garib = rivier = river

ǀHai + !garib => ǀHai!garib => Vaalrivier = drab river

Trans = on the other side of

Trans + Vaalrivier – rivier => Transvaal = on the other side of drab

Cabo = Kaap = cape

da Boa Esperança = de Goede Hoop = of good hope

Cabo + de Boa Esperança => Cabo da Boa Esperança => Kaap de Goede Hoop = cape of good hope

Kaap de Goede Hoop – de Goede Hoop + Transvaal – Trans => Kaapvaal => cape drab

Kaapvaal – Kaap => Vaal = drab

Pilbara time! This is a much shorter journey: "Pilbara" is an ancient word for its region, used since time immemorial across many Aboriginal languages. And that's about it.

I would love to know whether this meaning breaks down into morphemes in any local language, because I'd love to know what is being borrowed into "Vaalbara" by the "bara" half of the word … but I'm not sure that's how it works.

Wikipedia claims that "Pilbara" comes from the word for "dry" in several Ngayarda languages, and even claims to know what this word is — but I've been unable to confirm its assertion from any of the cited sources, or from any independent googling. What I have been able to confirm is that these languages exhibit significant variation in who's allowed to say what when they're speaking to whom, and it seems to me that the set of words I should be using is probably {"Pilbara"} and that's about it.

Which means that "bara" is just an unfinished idea — a holographically fuzzy version of "Pilbara" — which might or might not carry a fuzzy sense of dryness, but if so, only in the way a half-heard "keys" might bring a fuzzy sense that sometimes mountains can be rocky. I don't think this is an etymology anymore. I think we're adrift in the semiotics. Or the see-myself-out-ics. Or just the sea. A good time to look for land.

Fortunately there is land, because it's been about a billion years since that planetary collision mishap with Theia, and the Earth is just forming its first continent. An incomplete fuzzy sense of a mountain range in northwestern Australia, with a Dutch prefix meaning "drab." Welcome to Vaalbara.

[tanadrin]

the oldest known cave system is like ~340 million years old (the Jenolan Caves in Australia). gotta be older caves than that. somebody should take some ground penetrating radar to the pilbara craton and poke around.

[cavenewstimes]

South Africa, India and Australia shared similar volcanic activity 3.5 billion years ago

2023-06-08 16:09:00South Africa, India and Australia shared comparable volcanic activity 3.5 billion years agoThe Daitari greenstone belt shares a comparable geologic cosmetics when compared to the greenstones exposed in the Barberton and Nondweni locations of South Africa and those from the Pilbara Craton Cratons are pieces of ancient continents that formed a number of billions of years earlier.…

[el-cadejos]

Vaalbara AU

Etimology

General

Vaalbara: Archean supercontinent consisting of the Kaapvaal Craton and the Pilbara Craton.

Rodinia: from the Russian "Родить", rodít = ‘to beget’ or ‘to give birth’ (originally), or "Родина", ródina = ‘The Motherland’ or ‘a birthplace’. Neoproterozoic supercontinent.

Nimbus City-States

Nimbus: a luminous cloud or a halo surrounding a supernatural being or a saint.

Glaukopis: from the Greek “γλαυκῶπις”, = "bright-eyed" or "with gleaming eyes".

Noctua: Athene Noctua, an owl species.

Black Kingdom

Ascheholt: from the German “Asche” = “ash”, “holt” is an otter den.

Kolbein: from Old Norse “kolr” = 'coal' (synomym for 'black', 'dark') and bein = 'bone', 'leg'.

Rai: from old Khas kura, “King”

Thálmar Empire

Thálmar: from the Greek “Θάλασσα“ = “Thalassa” (sea), and Spanish “Mar” = “sea”.

Hjarn Principality

Hjarn: from Old Norse, 'hard, frozen snow'; 'frozen earth covered with snow'

Polarstjarna: from Old Norse “Stjarna” = “star”, and Norwegian “Polar” (same meaning).

Snöblomma: from the Swedish “SNÆ” = “snow” and “BLOM” = flower.

Jarls: noble class citizens

Karls: middle class citizens.

[hmantegazzi]

I might be wrong, but I seem to remember that parts of the Pilbara craton have never been submerged since the start of continental drift on Earth.

This video appears to suggest so, but I guess it's really difficult to know if shallow waters might have covered transiently such old rocks.

Sometimes I wonder if there are any bits of planet earth have never been submerged

[mostly-history]

Ancient stromatolites in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia (3.6 – 3.2 billion years old).

Stromatolites are formed when layers (1 – 10mm thick) of cyanobacteria and other microorganisms grow to form sedimentary rocks.  These stromatolites are some of the oldest in the world, forming during the Archaean era, which began 3.8 billion years ago and ended 2.5 billion years ago.

During this time, the Earth was unrecognizable compared to today.  It had a reducing atmosphere (in which oxidation was prevented) that was probably full of gases such as ammonia and methane – toxic to most of Earth's life today.

The Earth's crust was extremely hot during the preceding Hadean era, but now it began to cool down enough that rocks and continental plates could form.  Life first appeared on Earth.  All life during the Archaean was bacterial.

[earthstory]

Video tour of Hamersley, the Pilbara Craton, Australia - some of the oldest continental crust exposed on Earth.

I finally had a moment to piece together the last years worth of drone work from my travels in the North West. Far out, trimming 6 hours of footage to 4 minutes is not easy!

Locations filmed were primarily in the Hamersley range and Karijini National park areas, but also includes scenery around Pannawonica, Milstream-Chichester & Tom Price. I love this part of the country and having the opportunity to film from the sky is nothing short of awesome.

[vaalbara-historical-society]

Vaal’bara: Land of Magic and Mystery

Many people are unaware of the ancient continent known as Vaal'bara, despite its significance in humanity's Magical history. Even to this day, scientists debate its very existence, perhaps afraid of what it may reveal about our past. There are likely many among you who see Vaal'bara as simply a convenient plot point of our own devising, yet another fantastical setting in a series of fictional novels. But this ancient land is far more than fiction, dear readers. In due time, the truth will be revealed, and the world will once again look back upon our true origins on Vaal'bara...

If you’ve come across this article with no prior knowledge of our book series, or if you happened to start the series with Ten Years of Darkness, you’re likely unfamiliar with the continent of Vaal’bara, other than seeing the name in our series title, of course. But this ancient land is far more than simple fiction, dear readers…

Whether you choose to believe in the events of the Vaal’bara Historical Society series, or simply view them as fantasy, the continent of Vaal’bara was indeed real, though this revelation regarding the landmass is recent enough that scientists still debate its existence to this day. However, through the visions bestowed upon Viktor by Laurence, and through my own experience using the Temploscope , we can indeed confirm that the supercontinent existed billions of years ago. And, considering its importance to our ancient Xahl'thari history, we wanted to shine the spotlight on the site of Earth’s most significant events in our first entry of the Magical History Tour.

The land of Vaal’bara was formed billions of years ago, and was once home to our ancient ancestors, the Xahl’thari, as well as many other intelligent races long since extinct. An Archaean supercontinent consisting of the Kaap’vaal Craton (now located in eastern South Africa) and the Pilbara Craton (now located in northwestern Western Australia), Vaal’bara was one of the earliest supercontinents on Earth . The landmass was first documented by E. S. Cheney in 1994, who claims he derived the name from the last four letters of each craton's name. Due to Cheney’s unconventional name choice, however, there has been some debate at the Society as to whether this was an incredibly unlikely coincidence, or if Cheney had some sort of Xahl'thari heritage, and was slowly attempting to allow our ancient Magical history to resurface.

“I suspect you will be utterly baffled by my answer. We are on a continent - the only continent - which is referred to as Vaal’bara. We currently reside in a crater, which is at the center of the Kaap’vaal Mountain Range. It is approximately three billion human years before your time, perhaps a few million years less; I am not quite sure, as I have never taken a detailed account.”

- The First Fall of Lord Marris

The continent of Vaal’bara remained stable for 0.4-1 billion years, and hence had a life span similar to that of later supercontinents such as Gondwana and Rodinia. Some palaeomagnetic reconstructions suggest a Paleoarchaean Proto-Vaal’bara is possible, although the existence of this 3.2-3.6 billion-year-old continent cannot yet be proven through modern means. These reconstructions, however, are on the cusp of revealing a cataclysm that was brought about by a Gor'tier vessel colliding with our moons. The immense rain of debris temporarily devastated and reshaped large parts of the planet’s surface.

“Far before this time, what you call the Earth looked completely different than it does now. Your scientists would say we are sitting on one of the first continents ever created, and they would be partially correct. This is the first continent created since this world was destroyed by a great tragedy."

- The First Fall of Lord Marris

The granite-greenstone terrain of Kaap’vaal’s Barberton Mountain shows evidence of what scientists believe to be a large meteorite impact somewhere between 3.2 and 3.5 billion years ago. While they are currently unaware of the true cause of the impact, their research is leading them on the right track, and we can only hope they take our own knowledge into consideration in the future.

The high temperatures created by the force of this meteorite impacting Vaal'bara fused the area's sediments into small glassy spherules, which resemble the glassy rounded granules in carbonaceous chondrites which are found in carbon-rich meteorites and lunar soils. These ancient spherules are Earth's oldest known terrestrial impact products, and the only remaining evidence of the Magically-guided meteor which fell on Vaal’bara and created the distinctly sharp peaks and unnatural formation of the Kaap’vaal mountain range, which unfortunately no longer stands today.

“It was a beautiful and unusual sight, standing in the middle of some great tragedy, which likely rocked the world. I couldn't help but wonder if the crater was evidence of the titanic battle between the Xahl'thari and the Gor'tier. Yet there we were, the world healed over, staring at the natural beauty of the area. Even Thaddeus, taking time to scan the horizon, seemed to appreciate the sight himself."

- The First Fall of Lord Marris

The Pilbara and Kaap’vaal cratons are some of the oldest rocks in the world, and subsequently contain well-preserved Archaean microfossils. A series of international drilling projects has revealed traces of microbial life and photosynthesis from the Archaean period in both Africa and Australia. The oldest widely accepted evidence of photosynthesis by early life forms is molecular fossils found in 2.7 billion-year-old shales in the Pilbara Craton. These fossils are traces of early eukaryotes, which represent groups that went extinct before modern groups emerged. Eventually, modern science will discover that not only microbial life, but intelligent life - our ancient ancestors, the Xahl’thari, to name but one race - inhabited this planet long, long before we ever suspected…

There is still so much we don't yet know about the land of Vaal’bara, and much of what we do know was acquired secondhand through Laurence’s tale. Through the Society's continued study of our ancient Magical history, and what glimpses into the past we can achieve through the Temploscope, we hope to reveal even more about the ancient supercontinent which our ancestors once called home.

Through our many future entries in the Magical History Tour, you will learn more about the land of Vaal'bara and our Magical history, as well as the few Magical remnants still remaining in our modern world. So open your minds, set aside your reservations, and let a little Magic into your lives, dear readers...

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Modern plate tectonics may have gotten under way as early as 3.2 billion years ago, about 400 million years earlier than scientists thought. That, in turn, suggests that the movement of large pieces of Earth’s crust could have played a role in making the planet more hospitable to life.

Geologist Alec Brenner of Harvard University and his colleagues measured the magnetic orientations of iron-bearing minerals in the Honeyeater Basalt, a layer of rock that formed between 3.19 billion and 3.18 billion years ago. The basalt is part of the East Pilbara Craton, an ancient bit of continent in Western Australia that includes rocks as old as 3.5 billion years.

This craton, the researchers found, was on the move between 3.35 billion and 3.18 billion years ago, drifting around the planet at a rate of at least 2.5 centimeters per year. That’s a speed comparable to modern plate motions, the team reports April 22 in Science Advances.

The basalt layer, which burbled up as lava and hardened during the journey, contains iron-bearing minerals that can act as tiny signposts pointing the way toward Earth’s magnetic poles. While the lava was still molten, the minerals rotated, orienting themselves to align with either the north or south magnetic pole. By tracking the changes in orientation within the lava as more basalt formed during the journey, the researchers were able to determine how quickly the craton was moving.

[netmassimo]

An article published in the journal "Precambrian Research" describes the comparative study of lenticular microfossils dating back to 3.4 billion years ago. Dorothy Z. Oehler and Maud M. Walsh started working on these microfossils and together with other researchers concluded that the ones found in the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa, are related to those found in the Pilbara Craton, Australia. Probably they were autotrophic organisms that for some phases of their life cycle lived like plankton.

[newslobster]

Australian Rocks May Hold Clues For Mission Searching For Life On Mars

Australian Rocks May Hold Clues For Mission Searching For Life On Mars

Stromatolites form distinctive structures that can be recognised in the rock. Scientists have recently discovered that the layered rocks found in Western Australia have been formed by some of Earth’s earliest known life. The rocks in questions are stromatolites situated in the Pilbara Craton of the region. These rocks are formed by the excretions of photosynthetic microbes, and till now…

[levysoft]

Sebbene varie indagini geologiche abbiano mostrato l’esistenza di diversi supercontinenti durante la formazione del nostro pianeta, circa 4,5 miliardi di anni fa, poco si sa sui processi che li hanno originati e sul modo in cui si sono evoluti nel tempo. In questo contesto, un nuovo studio suggerisce che i primi ammassi continentali sono emersi in aree colpite da giganteschi meteoritidurante il primo miliardo di anni della Terra. Gli scienziati della School of Earth and Planetary Sciences della Curtin University (Australia) hanno analizzato campioni del cratere Pilbara nell’Australia occidentale, considerato il residuo meglio conservato dell’antica crosta terrestre. Si stima che la sua formazione sia avvenuta tra 4.000 e 2.500 milioni di anni fa. Dopo aver studiato la composizione degli isotopi di ossigeno di minuscoli cristalli di zircone, gli esperti sono stati in grado di identificare tre fasi nella formazione del cratone. “Lo studio della composizione di questi cristalli ha rivelato un processo ‘top-down’ che è iniziato con lo scioglimento delle rocce vicino alla superficie ed è andato più in profondità, il che è coerente con i processi geologici previsti dopo l’impatto di meteoriti giganti“, ha spiegato Tim Johnson, coautore dello studio.

I risultati ottenuti, recentemente pubblicati dalla rivista Nature, suggeriscono che l’impatto di un meteorite gigante, avvenuto 3,6 miliardi di anni fa, ha innescato un massiccio scioglimento del mantello terrestre, producendo uno spesso nucleo di silicato ricco di magnesio e ferro insieme a rocce ultrabasiche. Gli zirconi del secondo stadio di formazione hanno avuto origine tra 3.400 e 3.000 anni fa, periodo in cui, secondo ricerche precedenti, la Terra fu colpita danumerosi meteoriti massicci. Inoltre, i minerali studiati cristallizzati dai magmi progenitori si sono formati vicino alla base del nucleo continentale in evoluzione. “Il fatto che le rocce felsiche più antiche si siano formate tra 3,9 e 3,5 miliardi di anni fa, verso la fine del cosiddetto Late Heavy Bombardment – un periodo caratterizzato dal gran numero di massicci asteroidi che si scontrarono con i pianeti più vicini al Sole – non è una coincidenza“, scrivono gli autori dello studio sui minerali associati alla prima fase di formazione. “La nostra ricerca fornisce la prima prova evidente che i processi che alla fine hanno formato i continenti sono iniziati con impatti di meteoriti giganti, simili a quelli responsabili dell’estinzione dei dinosauri, ma verificatisi miliardi di anni prima“, ha concluso Johnson.

[astroblogs]

Is de aardkorst ontstaan door de periodieke passage van de aarde door de spiraalarmen van de Melkweg

Is de aardkorst ontstaan door de periodieke passage van de aarde door de spiraalarmen van de Melkweg

Geologische gebeurtenissen weergegeven in de baan van het zonnestelsel in de Melkweg. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESO/R. Hurt Onderzoek door C.L Kirkland (Curtin Universiteit in Australië) en zijn collega’s aan zuurstofisotopen in zirkoonkristallen in de oudste delen van de aardkorst (o.a. in de Pilbara cratons in Australië) wijst er op dat er een soort van ritme aanwezig lijkt te zijn in de opbouw…

[adrianusv61]

Is de aardkorst ontstaan door de periodieke passage van de aarde door de spiraalarmen van de Melkweg

Is de aardkorst ontstaan door de periodieke passage van de aarde door de spiraalarmen van de Melkweg

Geologische gebeurtenissen weergegeven in de baan van het zonnestelsel in de Melkweg. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ESO/R. Hurt Onderzoek door C.L Kirkland (Curtin Universiteit in Australië) en zijn collega’s aan zuurstofisotopen in zirkoonkristallen in de oudste delen van de aardkorst (o.a. in de Pilbara cratons in Australië) wijst er op dat er een soort van ritme aanwezig lijkt te zijn in de opbouw…

[leanpick]

Calidus unlocks Pilbara lithium potential with spinoff

Calidus unlocks Pilbara lithium potential with spinoff

Budding gold developer Calidus Resources is joining forces with Haoma Mining under the guise of new company, Pirra Lithium to unlock the lithium potential of more than 1,000 square kilometres of prime Pilbara real estate. The Pilbara Craton is shaping up to be one of the world’s major lithium and tantalum provinces housing the behemoth Wodgina and Pilgangoora lithium projects alongside Global…