The (146,147)Sm-(142,143)Nd systematics of early terrestrial differentiation and the lost continents of the early Earth

The very early history of the Earth has been one of the great enduring puzzles in the history of geology. We report evidence which clearly can be described as a vestige of a beginning, because the evidence that we report cannot be interpreted in any other way except as a geochemical signal of processes active in the very early history of the Earth. The evidence itself is a very small anomaly in the abundance of SM-146. The primary aims of this study were to: (1) verify the existence of the 'lost continents' of the Hadean era; and (2) determine their mean age.