Abstract
The Acasta Gneiss Complex (AGC), located on the western margin of the Slave craton in NW Canada, preserves a long and rich history of continental crust formation. The oldest rocks found in the AGC are the oldest known evolved rocks on Earth, and their generation and evolution have garnered significant scientific interest in the ∼30 years since their discovery. Here, we summarize the wealth of geological, geochronological, and geochemical information that has been produced from these important rocks, as well as attempt to summarize these data into an internally consistent tectonic model for how the AGC was generated. In summary, the existing data suggest that from ∼4.02 to 3.75 Ga, evolved rocks in the AGC were formed by both fractional crystallization of primary basaltic magmas and shallow-level partial melting of Hadean mafic crust. Then, at ∼3.6 Ga, young, hydrated, mafic crust was underthrust beneath the Paleoarchean evolved nucleus, generating deep-seated magmatism typical of other Archean gneiss terrains.
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