Erratum: Corrigendum: Earth’s first stable continents did not form by subduction

Johnson, Tim; Brown, Michael; Gardiner, Nicholas J.; Kirkland, Christopher L.; Smithies, R. Hugh

doi:10.1038/nature22385

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 4 publications

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“…The early rock record is dominated by tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite rocks (TTGs), which formed through partial melting of hydrated low-magnesium basaltic rocks (Johnson et al, 2013). Phase-equilibria modeling suggests that the protolith of early Archean TTGs formed at the base of thick, plateau-like basaltic crust (Johnson et al, 2017), consistent with the idea that early Earth was hotter than today (Herzberg et al, 2010), and, with multiple generations of melting and remelting, the arclike signature of trace elements does not require that TTGs formed in arcs (Johnson et al, 2017). These lines of evidence could collectively suggest that plate tectonics is not required for early Archean time and that the rock record can be explained by delamination occurring under a stagnant-lid and/or sluggish-lid convective regime (Johnson et al, 2013;Rozel et al, 2017).…”

Section: Lid-to-plate Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plate tectonic–like cycles since the Hadean: Initiated or inherited?

Mitchell

Spencer

Kirscher

et al. 2022

Geology

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Interpretation of Earth’s oldest preserved crustal archive, the Jack Hills zircon of Western Australia, has been controversial in terms of the onset of plate tectonics. We conduct time-series analysis on hafnium isotopes of the Jack Hills zircon and reveal an array of statistically significant cycles that are reminiscent of plate-tectonic subduction. At face value, such cycles may suggest early Earth conditions similar to those of today—the uniformitarian hypothesis that plate tectonics was essentially operational since “day one”. On the other hand, in the context of expected secular changes due to planetary evolution and geological observations, the cycles could instead imply that modern plate-tectonic subduction inherited mantle convective harmonics already facilitated by an early phase of stagnant-lid delamination—the “lid-to-plates” hypothesis. Either way, any model for the nature of plate tectonics must incorporate conditions operating during Hadean time, either by initiation of plate tectonics then or by later inheritance of preexisting cycles of mantle convection.

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