Rocks that formed some 3.7 billion years ago in the early Archean have given us the earliest glimpse yet of Earth's magnetic field.

"Understanding these extreme events is important for their occurrence in the future, space climate predictions and assessing the effects on the environment and on the Earth system."

What was our ancient magnetic field like? A new finding suggests the oldest estimate of the age of the planet's current magnetic field.

Earth's ancient magnetic field appears to have had a strength similar to what we see today, and it may have protected ancient life from harmful cosmic radiation.

A collaborative study by the University of Oxford and MIT has uncovered a 3.7-billion-year-old magnetic field record from Greenland, demonstrating that Earth's ancient magnetic field was as strong as it is today,

The new work offers a salve against worry. Their work suggests Earth has sustained a magnetic field since at least 3.7 billion years ago, the age of the cake-looking BIF rocks. This places the rocks in the Eoarchean, when the first records of Earth’s primitive atmosphere and oceans emerge.

Geologists uncovered ancient rocks in Greenland that bear the oldest remnants of Earth’s early magnetic field. The results potentially extend the age of the Earth’s magnetic field by hundreds of millions of years,

Most rocks are recycled through the mantle by tectonic movement, destroying any clues they might carry about the earliest phases of Earth's formation. That's why the researchers from the University of Oxford and MIT headed for Greenland.

Without its magnetic field, life on Earth would not be possible since this shields us from harmful cosmic radiation and charged particles emitted by the Sun (the ‘solar wind’). But up to n