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Blackmoore writes:

John Leyden at the Register provides Was Earth once covered in HELLFIRE? No – more like a wet Sunday night in Iceland
Geoboffins DEBUNK long-held scientific belief

Early Earth may have been less like the hellish realm of molten magma previously suspected but also distinct from the sort of environment found in modern-day Iceland, according to research by geologists.

The Earth had already formed oceans, continents and an active crustal plates by the time it was 500 million years old, scientists reckon. This view of the Hadean, Earth’s first geologic eon, has been refined by a fresh study comparing zircon crystals that formed during this time around four billion years ago with those formed in Iceland and zircon found in other contemporary environments. study concluded that although the early Earth was not covered in an ocean of molten magma, as thought as recently as 30 years ago, it wasn't quite like modern Iceland either, puncturing a favoured analogy among modern geologists.

It's always interesting how our views of the past are redefined by painstaking research. I wonder how the flat-earthers feel about this.