The growth of the continental crust: Constraints from zircon Hf-isotope data

Белоусова, Е. А.; Kostitsyn, Yu. A.; Griffin, William L.; Begg, Graham; O’Reilly, Suzanne Y.; Pearson, Norman J.

doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2010.07.024

Cited by 747 publications

(398 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…The relative exposure area of igneous rocks at Earth's surface has ostensibly varied very little throughout the entire Phanerozoic 104 (the last ~500 million years of Earth's history), despite a cycle of supercontinent assembly and break-up during the late Paleozoic. In addition, recent data place the onset of significant crustal growth, recycling, emergence and surface weathering very early in Earth's history [131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138] . This is perhaps not surprising -the record of sedimentary rocks on Earth extends to ~3.8 billion years ago and is continuous from this point onward, suggesting qualitatively that a surface sedimentary rock cycle existed during Earth's earliest history.…”

Section: The Balance Between Igneous and Sedimentary Sulphur Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term sedimentary recycling of rare sulphur isotope anomalies

Reinhard

Planavsky

Lyons

2013

Nature

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Sulphur Isotope Database:An extensive sulphur isotope database was used in the construction of Main Text Figure 1. These data were compiled from primary references 1-37 , although in some cases age constraints for certain units were obtained from other sources [38][39][40][41] or estimated. For Main Text Figure 1b, we calculated the cumulative average ∆ 33 S value for all samples up to each year of publication. The average values reported here thus include some contribution from sulphate minerals. However, the overwhelming majority of the data are sulphide mineral phases, and given that most sulphate data are characterized by negative ∆ 33 S values their inclusion will largely attenuate the pattern emphasized here, rendering our argument conservative. Furthermore, the overall effect of their inclusion is quite small (Fig. S1a,b). We also examined the effect of filtering data from analyses made via secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and analyses of macroscopic pyrite textures, which are not likely to be representative of bulk weathering crust, but again note that the basic pattern remains unchanged (Fig. S1a,b).The mean ∆ 33 S values shown in Fig. 1 are presented as unweighted averages. We consider this approach qualitatively justified, in that the database is composed largely of fine-grained siliciclastic sedimentary rocks that are relatively organic carbon and sulphur rich. Such rocks will not only be, on average, the most sulphur-enriched phases of the crust, but they will also likely hold the majority of the weathering sulphur reservoir at Earth's surface. Nonetheless, it is important to consider the possibility that there is a bias related to systematic relationships between the sulphur content of sedimentary rocks and their ∆ 33 S value. For this purpose, we compiled the available sulphur concentration data for the units within the isotope database and performed concentration-weighted statistical analyses.There does not appear to be any systematic relationship between rare sulphur isotope composition and sulphur content within the database (Fig. S2a). In addition, the cumulative unweighted average is nearly indistinguishable from the concentration-weighted average within this subset of the database (Fig. S2a,b). When the evolution of the overall ∆ 33 S value of the database is concentration-weighted, it shows a generally similar pattern through time to that of the overall mean values (Fig. S2b). Indeed, the mean ∆ 33 S value when weighted by concentration is more positive than the unweighted mean for a given population from the database. We stress the caveat that many of the published rare sulphur isotope datasets do not contain sulphur concentration data, so unfortunately this analysis cannot be performed on the entire database. However, the coupled isotope and concentration data represent well over 500 samples that range in sulphur content over three orders of magnitude. These considerations lead us to conclude that the pattern expressed in the overall mean ∆ 33 S values through time is robust and is ...

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Section: The Balance Between Igneous and Sedimentary Sulphur Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term sedimentary recycling of rare sulphur isotope anomalies

Reinhard

Planavsky

Lyons

2013

Nature

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“…Granitoids are commonly generated by partial melting of middle or lower crust and are often used to evaluate the contribution of juvenile and recycled material to the crust (e.g., Belousova et al, 2010;Kröner et al, in press). It is suggested that mantle-derived components or juvenile crust have played an important role in the generation of these granitoids in Central Asia Jahn et al, 2000Jahn et al, , 2004Sengör et al, 1993;Windley et al, 2007).…”

Section: Early Paleozoic Crustal Growth In the Southern Caobmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geochemistry, zircon U–Pb ages and Lu–Hf isotopes of early Paleozoic plutons in the northwestern Chinese Tianshan: Petrogenesis and geological implications

Huang

Long

Kröner

et al. 2013

Lithos

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“…The term "juvenile" refers to crustal material that plots on or close to the depleted mantle evolution line, suggesting derivation from a depleted mantle source. In contrast, "reworked" refers to the remobilization of preexisting crust by partial melting and/or erosion and sedimentation (25,26). Complete sample information, methodology, and geochemical datasets (U-Pb, Lu-Hf, and komatiite) are available in the Supporting Information, Figs.…”

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confidence: 99%

Archean komatiite volcanism controlled by the evolution of early continents

Mole

Fiorentini

Thébaud

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

141

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The generation and evolution of Earth's continental crust has played a fundamental role in the development of the planet. Its formation modified the composition of the mantle, contributed to the establishment of the atmosphere, and led to the creation of ecological niches important for early life. Here we show that in the Archean, the formation and stabilization of continents also controlled the location, geochemistry, and volcanology of the hottest preserved lavas on Earth: komatiites. These magmas typically represent 50-30% partial melting of the mantle and subsequently record important information on the thermal and chemical evolution of the Archean-Proterozoic Earth. As a result, it is vital to constrain and understand the processes that govern their localization and emplacement. Here, we combined Lu-Hf isotopes and U-Pb geochronology to map the four-dimensional evolution of the Yilgarn Craton, Western Australia, and reveal the progressive development of an Archean microcontinent. Our results show that in the early Earth, relatively small crustal blocks, analogous to modern microplates, progressively amalgamated to form larger continental masses, and eventually the first cratons. This cratonization process drove the hottest and most voluminous komatiite eruptions to the edge of established continental blocks. The dynamic evolution of the early continents thus directly influenced the addition of deep mantle material to the Archean crust, oceans, and atmosphere, while also providing a fundamental control on the distribution of major magmatic ore deposits. crustal evolution | lithosphere | architecture | mantle plumes | Ni-Cu-PGE deposits

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The growth of the continental crust: Constraints from zircon Hf-isotope data

Cited by 747 publications

References 54 publications

Long-term sedimentary recycling of rare sulphur isotope anomalies

Long-term sedimentary recycling of rare sulphur isotope anomalies

Geochemistry, zircon U–Pb ages and Lu–Hf isotopes of early Paleozoic plutons in the northwestern Chinese Tianshan: Petrogenesis and geological implications

Archean komatiite volcanism controlled by the evolution of early continents

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