Preservation Of Continental Crust Research Articles

Did transit through the galactic spiral arms seed crust production on the early Earth?

Abstract Although there is evidence for periodic geological perturbations driven by regular or semi-regular extra-terrestrial bombardment, the production of Earth's continental crust is generally regarded as a function of planetary differentiation driven by internal processes. We report time series analysis of the Hf isotopic composition of zircon grains from the North Atlantic and Pilbara cratons, the archetypes of Archean plate tectonic and non-plate tectonic settings, respectively. An ~170–200 m.y. frequency is recognized in both cratons that matches the transit of the solar system through the galactic spiral arms, where the density of stars is high. An increase in stellar density is consistent with an enhanced rate of Earth bombardment by comets, the larger of which would have initiated crustal nuclei production via impact-driven decompression melting of the mantle. Hence, the production and preservation of continental crust on the early Earth may have been fundamentally influenced by exogenous processes. A test of this model using oxygen isotopes in zircon from the Pilbara craton reveals correlations between crust with anomalously light isotopic signatures and exit from the Perseus spiral arm and entry into the Norma spiral arm, the latter of which matches the known age of terrestrial spherule beds. Our data support bolide impact, which promoted the growth of crustal nuclei, on solar system transit into and out of the galactic spiral arms.

Zircon age peaks: Production or preservation of continental crust?

Zircon age peaks are commonly interpreted either as crustal production peaks or as selective preservation peaks of subduction-produced crust selectively preserved during continent-continent collision. We contribute to this ongoing debate, using the Nd isotopic compositions of felsic igneous rocks and their distribution during the accretionary and collisional phases of orogens. The proportion of juvenile input into the continental crust is estimated with a mixing model using arc-like mantle and reworked continental crust end members. Orogen length and duration proxies for juvenile crustal volume show that the amount of juvenile crust produced and preserved at zircon age peaks during the accretionary phase of orogens is ≥3 times that preserved during the collisional phase of orogens. The fact that most juvenile crust is both produced and preserved during the accretionary phase of orogens does not require craton collisions for its preservation, thus favoring the interpretation of zircon age peaks as crustal production peaks. Most juvenile continental crust older than 600 Ma is produced and preserved before final supercontinent assembly and does not require supercontinent assembly for its preservation. Episodic destabilization of a compositionally heterogeneous layer at the base of the mantle may produce mantle plume events leading to enhanced subduction and crustal production. Our Nd isotope model for cumulative continental growth based on juvenile crust proxies for the past 2.5 b.y. suggests a step-like growth curve with rapid growth in accretionary orogens at the times of zircon age peaks.

The detrital zircon record: Supercontinents, parallel evolution—Or coincidence?

The interpretation of detrital zircon data is facing some important and potentially damaging inconsistencies that are commonly overlooked: combined U–Pb and Lu–Hf data from detrital zircon in sedimentary rocks have been used successfully to study global processes such as the extraction, growth and preservation of continental crust, suggesting generally similar patterns of evolution in different continents. Yet at the same time, such data are increasingly used to identify the source-rocks of individual clastic deposits, based on the implicit assumption that material from different source terranes carry distinct provenance signatures.For example, Precambrian detrital zircon age-fractions from late Mesoproterozoic to Recent sediments in Laurentia show patterns of U–Pb ages and initial Hf isotope composition indistinguishable from that of zircon from granitoids in Fennoscandia. This is perhaps not too surprising, as Fennoscandia and Laurentia have been near neighbours in three supercontinents (Nuna, Rodinia, Pangea). Transport and homogenization of clastic material in intracontinental basins and along a common continental margin would smooth out differences, and the two neighbouring continents may have closely parallel histories of internal growth.A stronger reason for concern is that Precambrian age fractions in detrital zircon suites from areas as distant as Australia and South Africa also show distribution patterns that cannot be distinguished with confidence from sources in Fennoscandia. These continents have not been near neighbours in post-Archaean supercontinents. Since exchange of detritus between such distant blocks is improbable, one is left with the alternative explanations of pronounced parallel evolution (perhaps related to the assembly of supercontinents in the geological past), or pure coincidence.Whatever the explanation: exchange, parallelism or coincidence, observations such as these challenge the main assumptions underlying the use of zircon as an indicator of sedimentary provenance: That a given age and initial Hf isotopic pattern of a population of detrital zircons can be unequivocally related to a specific first-generation source.