🪨 Jack Hills
Source of Earth's oldest known mineral grains in Western Australia
📌 Fast Facts
- Location: Mid West Western Australia, 290 km north of Perth
- Oldest material: Hadean zircon crystals dated to 4.39 billion years ago
- Geological period: Hadean eon, Earth's first geological division
- Early life evidence: 4.1 billion-year-old carbon signatures reported in 2015
Jack Hills is a low mountain range in Western Australia that contains some of the planet's most ancient mineral specimens. The zircon crystals found here, analysed through uranium-lead dating, represent the oldest known material of terrestrial origin and provide a window into Earth's earliest geological period, the Hadean eon. As of 2026, Jack Hills remains an active research site, with ongoing sample collection and laboratory analysis conducted by geoscience teams from multiple institutions ...