Understanding the roles of crustal growth and preservation in the detrital zircon record

Lancaster, Penelope J.; Storey, Craig; Hawkesworth, Chris J.; Dhuime, Bruno

doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.03.022

Cited by 78 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 52 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The relationships of Hf model ages and crystallisation ages of zircons are different in NW Scotland and Australia. In the former, there are marked peaks in crystallisation and model ages, with a consistent residence time of ~600 Ma (Lancaster et al, 2011). As it is argued that the peaks of crystallisation ages are the product of preferential preservation, then that presumably follows for the Hf model ages as well.…”

Section: Implications Of a Biased Recordmentioning

confidence: 94%

Continental growth and the crustal record

2013

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The continental crust is the archive of Earth history. The spatial and temporal distribution of the Earth's record of rock units and events is heterogeneous with distinctive peaks and troughs in the distribution of ages of igneous crystallization, metamorphism, continental margins and mineralization. This distribution reflects the different preservation potential of rocks generated in different tectonic settings, rather than fundamental pulses of activity, and the peaks of ages are linked to the timing of supercontinent assembly. In contrast there are other signals, such as the Sr isotope ratios of seawater, mantle temperatures, and redox conditions on the Earth, where the records are regarded as primary because they are not sensitive to the numbers of samples of different ages that have been analysed. New models based on the U-Pb, Hf and O isotope ratios of detrital zircons suggest that at least ~60-70% of the present volume of the continental crust had been generated by 3 Ga. The growth of continental crust was a continuous rather than an episodic process, but there was a marked decrease in the rate of crustal growth at ~3 Ga. This appears to have been linked to significant crustal recycling and the onset plate tectonics. The 60-70% of the present volume of the continental crust estimated to have been present at 3 Ga, contrasts markedly with the <10% of crust of that age apparently still preserved and it requires ongoing destruction (recycling) of early formed crust and subcontinental mantle lithosphere back into the mantle through processes such as subduction and delamination.

show abstract

Section: Implications Of a Biased Recordmentioning

confidence: 94%

Continental growth and the crustal record

2013

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These post-orogenic sedimentary successions are represented by a NeoproterozoiceCambrian outcrop (w950 to w500 Ma) belt that spans the eastern margin of Laurentia from Texas to Newfoundland and from there into Wheeler, 1964;Cawood and Nemchin, 2001;Gower, 2009;Kamo et al, 2011;Scotland after Rainbird et al, 2001;Kirkland et al, 2008;Lancaster et al, 2011). Pre-, syn-, and post-orogenic depositional ages based upon previous studies are discussed in Sections 2.2 and 2.3. northern Scotland and eastern Greenland (Cawood et al, 2007a, b and references therein;Spencer et al, 2014b).…”

Section: Post-orogenic Successionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Generation and preservation of continental crust in the Grenville Orogeny

Spencer

Cawood

Hawkesworth

et al. 2015

Geoscience Frontiers

Self Cite

130

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

a b s t r a c tDetrital zircons from modern sediments display an episodic temporal distribution of U-Pb crystallization ages forming a series of 'peaks' and 'troughs'. The peaks are interpreted to represent either periods of enhanced generation of granitic magma perhaps associated with mantle overturn and superplume events, or preferential preservation of continental crust during global collisional orogenesis. The close association of those peaks with the assembly of supercontinents implies a causal relationship between collisional orogenesis and the presence of zircon age peaks. Here these two end-member models (episodic periodicity of increased magmatism versus selective preservation during collisional orogenesis) are assessed using U-Pb, Hf, and O analysis of detrital zircons from sedimentary successions deposited during the w1.3e1.

show abstract

“…This is based on the premise that this age reflects the age of extraction from the depleted mantle reservoir, and that subsequent zircon crystallization occurred much later; the difference between these events is commonly known as the crustal residence time (e.g. Wang et al 2009;Lancaster et al 2011). Although the underlying reasoning behind this premise remains valid, it remains uncertain how often a host magma will have remained a closed system since extraction from the mantle.…”

Section: Use and Abuse Of Model Agesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This oxygen-isotope based criterion has subsequently been used in many other studies (e.g. Wang et al 2009Wang et al , 2011Lancaster et al 2011), typically revealing that crustal growth in any one particular region occurs in discrete episodes. Along with Hf isotopes, oxygen isotopes in zircon provide equivocal information, and thus their use as a binary discriminator is less than ideal (i.e.…”

Section: Crustal Growth Ratementioning

confidence: 99%

“…That is, do the peaks of continental crust formation (i.e. those recorded with zircon U -Pb crystallization ages) represent episodic growth of continental crust (Condie 1998;Yin et al 2012;Walzer & Hendel 2013;Arndt & Davaille 2013;Rino et al 2004) or biased crustal preservation Condie et al 2011;Lancaster et al 2011;Roberts 2012).…”

Section: Preservation Of the Geological Recordmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The zircon archive of continent formation through time

Roberts¹,

Spencer²

2014

200

136

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The strong resilience of the mineral zircon and its ability to host a wealth of isotopic information make it the best deep-time archive of Earth's continental crust. Zircon is found in most felsic igneous rocks, can be precisely dated and can fingerprint magmatic sources; thus, it has been widely used to document the formation and evolution of continental crust, from pluton-to global-scale. Here, we present a review of major contributions that zircon studies have made in terms of understanding key questions involving the formation of the continents. These include the conditions of continent formation on early Earth, the onset of plate tectonics and subduction, the rate of crustal growth through time and the governing balance of continental addition v. continental loss, and the role of preservation bias in the zircon record.

show abstract

Understanding the roles of crustal growth and preservation in the detrital zircon record

Cited by 78 publications

References 52 publications

Continental growth and the crustal record

Continental growth and the crustal record

Generation and preservation of continental crust in the Grenville Orogeny

The zircon archive of continent formation through time

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About