Eoarchaean
A characteristic of the Eoarchean is that Earth possessed a firm crust for the first time. However, this crust may have been incomplete at many sites and areas of lava may have existed at the surface. The beginning of the Eoarchaean is characterized by heavy asteroid bombardment within the inner solar system: the Late Heavy Bombardment. The Eoarchaean is the first phase of our planet from which solid rock formations survived. The largest is the Isua greenstone belt at the southwest coast of Greenland. It appeared during the Eoarchaean around 3.8 billion years ago. The Acasta Gneiss within the Canadian Shield have been dated to be 4.03 Ga and are therefore the oldest preserved rock formations. In 2008 another rock formation was discovered in the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt in northern Québec in Canada which has been dated to be 4.28 Ga. These formations are presently under intense investigation.