Feedback between surface and deep processes: Insight from time series analysis of sedimentary record

Abstract

Sediment accumulation and subduction at continental margins are hypothesized to be crucial in the operation of Wilson cycle style plate tectonics on Earth. To test this hypothesis, we explore the interaction between continental sedimentation and plate tectonics by utilizing a 3.5 Gyr continent-scale sediment abundance record from the Macrostrat database. Wavelet analysis of a time series of sedimentary rock volume identified a supercontinent-like cycle of ∼500 Myr across the past 3.0 Gyr. Intriguingly, this long-term fluctuation in net sedimentation record that indicates continent-derived sediment flux into oceanic crust is in phase with the vigor of subduction activity (as characterized by zircon εHf and δ18O isotopes) through time. These agreements provide independent evidence for the hypothesis that the operation of Wilson cycle style plate tectonics was facilitated by sediment accumulation and subduction (lubrication) at continental margins. Moreover, wavelet cross-correlation analysis of sediment abundance and subduction flux suggests an increasingly efficient sediment cycling via subduction since ∼3.0 Ga, notably coinciding with transition periods of atmospheric oxygen levels at the beginning and end of the Proterozoic. The results suggest that the co-evolving surface process and plate tectonics that increased long-term net sequestration of organic carbon could have contributed to the initial rise of atmospheric oxygen at the beginning of the Proterozoic and the climb to sustained modern levels in the early Phanerozoic.