image: This is Western Australian olivine adcumulate rock from one of the hottest magmas that ever erupted on planet Earth. Komatiites are ancient lava flows, which erupted on the Earth surface more than 2.7 billion years ago. Komatiites provide crucial information to constrain the thermal and petrological evolution of the Early Earth. In addition, komatiites are one of the greatest nickel resources in the world, in the form of massive and disseminated nickel-sulfides. This image relates to an article that appeared in the Nov. 20 issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Andrey Bekker of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Washington, DC, and the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB, Canada, and colleagues was titled, "Atmospheric Sulfur in Archean Komatiite-Hosted Nickel Deposits." view more
Credit: [Image courtesy of Marco Fiorentini]