Scientists from China have proved that modern plate shifts date back 2.5 billion years

A team of researchers from China University of Geosciences concluded that rock samples

found on the Ural-Mongolian fold beltwithin the North China ancient platform, show that movements of lithospheric plates occurred on Earth 2.5 billion years ago. Scientists have been studying Archean rocks in this zone for 20 years. Their work showed that the mountainous Ural-Mongolian belt was formed precisely because of plate shifts.

Geologists have discovered that rock samplesoriginally formed as part of an oceanic ridge that moved up to the plate docking zone. Once part of the sedimentary rock was located under the slab, it was subjected to temperatures from 792 to 890 ° C and pressures from 19.8 to 24.5 kbar. As a result, the rock was displaced 65 km below the surface of the earth, and then rose again.

Map of tectonic plate movements

Scientists have discovered in the rockremnants of ancient oceanic crust - suggesting that the material was once at the bottom of the ocean - and tectonic mixtures of rocks of a chaotic structure that show the place where the plates meet. Analysis of slab samples showed signs of slab transformation as the rock changed due to heat and pressure during movement.

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