Washington, Feb 8 : The Pilbara in northwestern Australia has some of the Earth’s oldest rocks, over 3.6 billion years old, according to NASA. The iron-rich rocks were formed before the presence of atmospheric oxygen and even beginning of life. It was further revealed that upon these rocks were 3.45 billion-year-old fossil stromatolites, colonies of microbial cyanobacteria. The image is a composite of ASTER, one of five Earth-observing instruments is a joint effort between NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry (METI) and scientific and industry organisations in both countries. The image acquired on October 12, 2004, covered an area of 49.1 by 55.2 km
