A hidden Earth's crust suggests Scandinavia was born some 3.75 billion years ago in Greenland

Scientists in new research found a piece of rock which is likely to hold the answers to the mysteries of our planet and tell the world about its uniqueness. 

The researchers stumbled upon a part of the Earth’s crust which is likely to have been hidden for more than 3 billion years in Northern Europe’s oldest mountains in Finland. 

The discovery emphasises the formation of the continent and even suggests that the birth of Denmark and Scandinavia actually took place some 3.75 billion years ago in Greenland.

“Our data suggest that the oldest part of Earth’s crust beneath Scandinavia originates in Greenland and is about 250 million years older than we previously thought,” said Professor Tod Waight, who is a geologist at the University of Copenhagen, in a statement.

The traces of the ancient crust were first found in the mineral zircon by Waight and his colleagues and then its chemical fingerprint matched with some of the oldest rocks on the planet which were found in West Greenland.

“The zircon crystals we found in river sand and rocks from Finland have signatures that point towards them being much older than anything ever found in Scandinavia while matching the age of Greenlandic rock sample,” said researcher Andreas Petersson, who was part of the study.

“At the same time, the results of three independent isotope analyses confirm that Scandinavia’s bedrock was most likely linked to Greenland," he added. 

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Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark sit above a section of the Earth’s crust which is called the Fennoscandian Shield, or the Baltic Shield. 

According to the scientists, this shield got detached from Greenland as a “seed” and moved for hundreds of millions of years till it “took root” where Finland exists today.

The plate continued to develop here as new geological material accumulated near it and it slowly became Scandinavia.

Earth existed like a watery planet when the crust got detached: Study

The study emphasises that when the crust got detached from Greenland, the planet was very different from what it looks now.

“Earth was probably a watery planet, like in the movie Waterworld, but without any oxygen in the atmosphere and without emergent crust,” said Prof Waight.

“But, because that’s so far back in time, we can’t really be sure about what it actually looked like," he added. 

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As per his team, Earth stands out from its galactic neighbours because of the continental crust which is composed of granite.

“This is unique in our solar system,” Petersson said. “And, evidence of liquid water and a granite crust are key factors when trying to identify habitable exoplanets and the possibility of life beyond Earth," he added.

(With inputs from agencies)