NTGS staff acknowledge with sadness the passing of Dr. Samuel A. Bowring.  Dr. Bowring was well known and respected in the Northwest Territories and was highly regarded for his work on the origin and evolution of continental crust. One of his earliest major contributions, which transformed what geologist know about the early evolution of the Earth, was his work in the 1980s on the Acasta gneiss complex in the Northwest Territories. Dr. Bowring’s age dating work revealed a rare remnant of the Earth’s earliest crust, originally dated at 3.962 billion years old. Subsequent research has shown that rocks as old as 4.02 billion years old exist in this part of Canada’s North. This unique part of our planet has drawn worldwide attention since Dr. Bowring’s initial discovery and scientists continue to research the area and make comparisons with other ancient fragments of continental crust.