It has been discovered that the Mediterranean Sea may have the oldest oceanic crust. Scientists found an undisturbed piece of the Earth's outermost shell that may be as old as 340 million years. Although most oceanic floor is less than 200 million years old due to being recycled back into the earths mantel, the Mediterranean Sea may break this record. "Changes in the magnetic field's orientation over time are recorded in the ocean floors, creating a unique bar code that provides a time stamp for crust formation," study author Roi Granot, a geologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, said in a statement. Granot proposed the ancient crust in this part of the eastern Mediterranean could be remnants of one of Earth's early oceans, Tethys, which had existed long before the Atlantic and Indian oceans. If that theory is correct, these findings show that the ancient Tethys Ocean formed much earlier than scientists previously thought. This article was very interesting. I think that it is cool that the earth can still have remains from over 300 million years ago- especially in the ocean where one would typically think things would erode fasted from the water. It also makes me think about all of the other untouched water and what scientific discoveries are still yet to be made. http://www.livescience.com/55827-oldest-oceanic-crust-mediterranean-sea.html
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