Reply to Zou et al.: Neoarchean eclogite-facies oceanic crust in the North China Craton

Earth owes much of its dynamic surface to its bimodal hypsometry, manifested by high-riding continents and low-riding ocean basins. The thickness of the crust in the lithosphere exerts the dominant control on the long-wavelength elevations of continents. However, there is a limit to how high elevations can rise by crustal thickening. With continuous crustal thickening, the mafic lower crust eventually undergoes a densifying phase transition, arresting further elevation gain—an effect clearly observed in modern orogenic belts. On early Earth, lower crust densification should also limit how high a thickening crust can rise, regardless of the thickening mechanisms. We suggest that lower crust densification combined with a thicker oceanic crust in the Archean may have limited the whole-Earth topographic relief to 3 to 5 kilometers at most—half that of the present day. Unless the oceans were far less voluminous, limited relief would inevitably lead to a water world on early Earth.

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Reply to Zou et al.: Neoarchean eclogite-facies oceanic crust in the North China Craton

Cited by 2 publications

References 10 publications

Neoarchean SSZ and MOR ultra-/high-pressure ophiolitic mélanges of the Eastern Hebei Complex, North China Craton: Dynamics of an Archean paleo-subduction zone

Neoarchean SSZ and MOR ultra-/high-pressure ophiolitic mélanges of the Eastern Hebei Complex, North China Craton: Dynamics of an Archean paleo-subduction zone

Subaerial crust emergence hindered by phase-driven lower crust densification on early Earth

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