Oldest Rock

[See Dr. Chris Halvorson's History of Life article (its only a couple pages long) for an appreciation of how and why Urantia Book dates for ancient times are different that radiometric dating.]

The relevant passage comes from Paper 57: The Origin of Urantia, Section 8: Crustal Stabilization, The Age of Earthquakes, The World Ocean, and The First Continent. This section begins by asserting:

57:8.1-3 1,000,000,000 years ago is the date of the actual beginning of Urantia history. The planet had attained approximately its present size. . .

The atmosphere, together with incessant moisture precipitation, facilitated the cooling of the earth's crust. Volcanic action early equalized internal-heat pressure and crustal contraction; and as volcanoes rapidly decreased, earthquakes made their appearance as this epoch of crustal cooling and adjustment progressed.

The real geologic history of Urantia begins with the cooling of the earth's crust sufficiently to cause the formation of the first ocean. Water-vapor condensation on the cooling surface of the earth, once begun, continued until it was virtually complete. By the end of this period the ocean was world-wide, covering the entire planet to an average depth of over one mile. The tides were then in play much as they are now observed, but this primitive ocean was not salty; it was practically a fresh-water covering for the world. In those days, most of the chlorine was combined with various metals, but there was enough, in union with hydrogen, to render this water faintly acid.

This section goes on to describe events during the time period of 950,000,000 years ago. Then, in the portion of this section describing events during the period of 900,000,000 years ago, The Urantia Book states:

57:8.11-13 This entire age was characterized by frequent and violent storms. The early crust of the earth was in a state of continual flux. Surface cooling alternated with immense lava flows. Nowhere can there be found on the surface of the world anything of this original planetary crust. It has all been mixed up too many times with extruding lavas of deep origins and admixed with subsequent deposits of the early world-wide ocean.

Nowhere on the surface of the world will there be found more of the modified remnants of these ancient preocean rocks than in northeastern Canada around Hudson Bay. This extensive granite elevation is composed of stone belonging to the preoceanic ages. These rock layers have been heated, bent, twisted, upcrumpled, and again and again have they passed through these distorting metamorphic experiences.

Throughout the oceanic ages, enormous layers of fossil-free stratified stone were deposited on this ancient ocean bottom. (Limestone can form as a result of chemical precipitation; not all of the older limestone was produced by marine-life deposition.) In none of these ancient rock formations will there be found evidences of life; they contain no fossils unless, by some chance, later deposits of the water ages have become mixed with these older prelife layers.

Links:

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE48O7JW20080925?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0 basic story compares to previous oldest rocks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7636708.stm  more details than reuters article

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iSuFBNhLw5AXOXVIWx1o4cH3jUew has some nice details

http://paleogeology.blogspot.com/2008/08/acasta-gneiss.html Acasta Gneiss

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2002AGUFM.V62A1384I

http://www.platetectonics.com/article.asp?a=39&c= 1999 article, extended history of the subject, nice article for the period

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