Research Article| December 01, 2011 Lower crustal flow kept Archean continental flood basalts at sea level Nicolas Flament; Nicolas Flament * 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France2EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia *E-mail: nicolas.flament@sydney.edu.au. Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Patrice F. Rey; Patrice F. Rey 2EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Nicolas Coltice; Nicolas Coltice 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Gilles Dromart; Gilles Dromart 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Nicolas Olivier Nicolas Olivier 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information Nicolas Flament * 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France2EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Patrice F. Rey 2EarthByte Group, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Nicolas Coltice 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France Gilles Dromart 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France Nicolas Olivier 1CNRS, UMR 5276, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Université de Lyon, 2 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France *E-mail: nicolas.flament@sydney.edu.au. Publisher: Geological Society of America Received: 07 Mar 2011 Revision Received: 01 Jul 2011 Accepted: 16 Jul 2011 First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2682 Print ISSN: 0091-7613 © 2011 Geological Society of America Geology (2011) 39 (12): 1159–1162. https://doi.org/10.1130/G32231.1 Article history Received: 07 Mar 2011 Revision Received: 01 Jul 2011 Accepted: 16 Jul 2011 First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Nicolas Flament, Patrice F. Rey, Nicolas Coltice, Gilles Dromart, Nicolas Olivier; Lower crustal flow kept Archean continental flood basalts at sea level. Geology 2011;; 39 (12): 1159–1162. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G32231.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract Large basaltic provinces as much as 15 km thick are common in Archean cratons. Many of these flood basalts erupted through continental crust but remained at sea level. Although common in the Archean record, subaqueous continental flood basalts (CFBs) are rare to absent in the post-Archean. Here we show that gravity-driven lower crustal flow may have contributed to maintaining Archean CFBs close to sea level. Our numerical experiments reveal that the characteristic time to remove the thickness anomaly associated with a CFB decreases with increasing Moho temperature (TM), from 500 m.y. for TM ≈ 320 °C to 1 m.y. for TM ≈ 900 °C. This strong dependency offers the opportunity to assess, from the subsidence history of CFBs, whether continental geotherms were significantly hotter in the Archean. In particular, we show that the subsidence history of the ca. 2.7 Ga upper Fortescue Group in the East Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, requires Moho temperatures >>700 °C. Applied to eight other unambiguous subaqueous Archean CFBs, our results indicate Moho temperatures >>650 °C at the time of eruption. We suggest that the decrease in the relative abundance of subaqueous CFBs over Earth's history could reflect the secular cooling of the continental lithosphere due to the decrease in radiogenic heat production. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.