Speculations on evolution of the terrestrial lithosphere–asthenosphere system—Plumes and plates

Abstract

In the early Earth, accretionary impact heating, including collision with a large, Mars-sized object, decay of short-lived radioisotopes, and (after an initial thermal run-up) continuous segregation of the liquid Fe–Ni core resulted in extensive the melting of the silicate mantle and in the formation of a near-surface magma mush ocean. Progressive, continuous degassing and chemical–gravitational differentiation of the crust–mantle system accompanied this Hadean stage, and has gradually lessened during the subsequent cooling of the planet. Mantle and core overturn was vigorous in the Hadean Earth, reflecting deep-seated chemical heterogeneities and concentrations of primordial heat. Hot, bottom-up mantle convection, including voluminous plume ascent, efficiently rid the planet of much thermal energy, but gradually decreased in importance with the passage of time. Formation of lithospheric scum began when planetary surface temperatures fell below those of basalt and peridotite solidi. Thickening and broadening of lithospheric plates are inferred from the post-Hadean rock record. Developmental stages of mantle circulation included: (a) 4.5–4.4 Ga, early, chaotic magma ocean circulation involving an incipient or pre-plate regime; (b) 4.4–2.7 Ga, growth of small micro-oceanic and microcontinental platelets, all returned to the mantle prior to 4.0 Ga, but increasing in size and progressively suturing sialic crust-capped lithospheric amalgams at and near the surface over time; (c) 2.7–1.0 Ga, assembly of cratons surmounting larger, supercontinental plates; and (d) 1.0 Ga–present, modern, laminar-flowing asthenospheric cells capped by gigantic, Wilson-cycle lithospheric plates. Restriction of komatiitic lavas to the Archean, and of ophiolite complexes ± alkaline igneous rocks, high-pressure and ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic terranes to progressively younger Proterozoic–Phanerozoic orogenic belts supports the idea that planetary thermal relaxation promoted the increasingly negative buoyancy of cooler oceanic lithosphere. The Thickening of oceanic plates enhanced the gravitational instability and the consequent overturn of the outer Earth as cold, top-down oceanic mantle convection. The scales and dynamics of deep-seated asthenospheric circulation, and of lithospheric foundering + shallow asthenospheric return flow evidently have evolved gradually over geologic time in response to the progressive cooling of the Earth.