Crust (geology) centers, where partial-melting of the underlying mantle yields basaltic magmas and new ocean crust forms. This "ridge push" is one of the driving forces of plate tectonics, and it is constantly creating new ocean crust. That means that old crust must be destroyed somewhere, so, opposite a spreading center, there is usually a subduction zone: a trench where an ocean plate is being shoved back into the mantle. This constant process of creating new ocean crust and destroying old ocean crust means that the oldest ocean crust on Earth today is only about 200 million years old. In contrast, the
Chaotian (geology) the Mundrabilla iron meteorite of Western Australia using the argon method determined an age of 4,570 ± 60 million years ago. The proposed collision with Theia, leading to the formation of the Moon, is estimated to have occurred 4.527 billion years ago. Outgassing and differentiation of the earth in an iron-rich core and mantle may have been completed 4.45 billion years ago. Chaotian (geology) In the geologic record the Chaotian eon or era is unofficially proposed to denote the time preceding the solidification of the Earth's crust and the formation of Earth's moon, it is the earliest era within the