Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42773110›Full record

ArticleNature communications2026

A missing continental impact melt sheet signal in the early Earth detrital zircon record.

Ian Szumila, Dustin Trail, Miki Nakajima, Veanessya Vazquez-Lopez, Rasmus Haugaard, Taus Jørgensen, Michael R Ackerson, Steven B Shirey, Nicolas B Litza, Scott Hull and 2 more

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Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

12 authors.

Ian SzumilaCarnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC, USA. iszumila@carnegiescience.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2577-0194
Dustin TrailDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Miki NakajimaDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5014-0448
Veanessya Vazquez-LopezDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Rasmus HaugaardLaurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada.
Taus JørgensenLaurentian University, Sudbury, ON, Canada.
Michael R AckersonSmithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4525-9986
Steven B ShireyCarnegie Institution for Science, Washington, DC, USA.
Nicolas B LitzaDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Scott HullDepartment of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4216-7733
James DarlingInstitute of the Earth & Environment, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-6634
Shweta NarkarRensselaer Astrobiology Research and Education Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Impact-derived melting has been proposed as a significant process in the formation of Earth's early crust which could mean that impact melts are a source for Earth's oldest minerals including ancient zircons. However, the source lithology of many Archean and Hadean zircons is unclear because many grains are detrital. Therefore, in this work, we develop a machine learning model trained on the U/Yb, Th/U, Yb, and Gd/Yb values of zircons from the 1.85 Ga Sudbury impact melt sheet and more typical igneous processes, so that it could distinguish between them. Here, we show that ancient zircons from three >3.2Ga localities did not crystallize from impact melt sheets. Our results support the hypothesis that early earth zircons are not sourced directly from impact melt sheets, especially one produced by impacting continental crust and indicate no evidence for a late heavy bombardment implying a more habitable Hadean.

Identifiers

PMID42773110
PMCPMC13598112

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.