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Secular change in lifetime of granitic crust and the continental growth: A new view from detrital zircon ages of sandstones
Accepted Manuscript Secular change in lifetime of granitic crust and the continental growth: a new view from detrital zircon ages of sandstones Hikaru Sawada, Yukio Isozaki, Shuhei Sakata, Takafumi Hirata, Shigenori Maruyama PII:
S1674-9871(16)30208-0
DOI:
10.1016/j.gsf.2016.11.010
Reference:
GSF 515
To appear in:
Geoscience Frontiers
Received Date: 29 February 2016 Revised Date:
9 November 2016
Accepted Date: 25 November 2016
Please cite this article as: Sawada, H., Isozaki, Y., Sakata, S., Hirata, T., Maruyama, S., Secular change in lifetime of granitic crust and the continental growth: a new view from detrital zircon ages of sandstones, Geoscience Frontiers (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.gsf.2016.11.010. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Secular change in lifetime of granitic crust
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and the continental growth:
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a new view from detrital zircon ages of sandstones
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Hikaru Sawada
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Maruyama d
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, Yukio Isozakia, Shuhei Sakatab, Takafumi Hirata c, Shigenori
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Department of General System Studies, the University of Tokyo
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Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo Institute of Technology
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Department of Chemistry, Gakushuin University
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Geochemical Research Center, the University of Tokyo
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* Corresponding author: [email protected] (H. Sawada).
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Highlights Detrital zircon U-Pb dating for Archean–Proterozoic sandstones from Australia, N. America, and Africa.
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Zircon age compilation of 2.9, 2.6, 2.3, 1.0 and 0.6 Ga sandstones revealed history of continental growth.
Rapid production/recycle of continental crusts in the Neoarchean–Paleoproterozoic.
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Net growth of continents occurred after 2.0 Ga, whereas net decrease after 1.0 Ga.
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Abstract
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U-Pb ages of detrital zircons were newly dated for 4 Archean sandstones from the Pilbara
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craton in Australia, Wyoming craton in North America, and Kaapvaal craton in Africa.
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By using the present results with previously published data, we compiled the age spectra
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of detrital zircons for 2.9, 2.6, 2.3, 1.0, and 0.6 Ga sandstones and modern river sands in
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order to document the secular change in age structure of continental crusts through time.
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The results demonstrated the following episodes in the history of continental crust: (1)
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low growth rate of the continents due to the short cycle in production/destruction of
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granitic crust during the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic (2.9–2.3 Ga), (2) net increase in
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volume of the continents during Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic (2.3–1.0 Ga), and (3) net
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decrease in volume of the continents during the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic (after
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1.0 Ga). In the Archean and Paleoproterozoic, the embryonic continents were smaller
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than the modern continents, probably owing to the relatively rapid production and
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destruction of continental crust. This is indeed reflected in the heterogeneous crustal age
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structure of modern continents that usually have relatively small amount of Archean
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crusts with respect to the post-Archean ones. During the Mesoproterozoic, plural
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continents amalgamated into larger ones comparable to modern continental blocks in size.
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Relatively older crusts were preserved in continental interiors, whereas younger crusts
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were accreted along continental peripheries. In addition to continental arc magmatism,
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the direct accretion of intra-oceanic island arc around continental peripheries also became
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important for net continental growth. Since 1.0 Ga, total volume of continents has
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decreased, and this appears consistent with on-going phenomena along modern active
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arc-trench system with dominant tectonic erosion and/or arc subduction. Subduction of
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a huge amount of granitic crusts into the mantle through time is suggested, and this
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requires re-consideration of the mantle composition and heterogeneity.
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Keywords: detrital zircon, U-Pb age, continental growth, subduction erosion,
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preservation bias
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1. Introduction The vast occurrence of granitic continental crust, as well as the existence of life, is
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one of the unique features of the Earth, in remarkable contrast to other planets of the solar
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system. Nevertheless, the origin and history of continent has been the main topic of
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discussion for years but not yet fully understood. Fig. 1A shows geotectonic map of all
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extant continents and age proportion of continental crusts, from the Archean to Cenozoic.
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Conventionally, the gradual accumulation of continental (sial) crust through time was
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assumed on the basis of its relatively large buoyancy with respect to oceanic (sima) crust
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(e.g., Hurley and Rand, 1969). In contrast, considerations on overall thermal history of
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the Earth drove some researchers to imagine the vigorous formation of continental crust
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particularly during the earliest history of the planet; the total volume of early continents
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exceeded even over that of the present continents (e.g., Fyfe, 1978; Armstrong and
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Harmon, 1981; Fig. 1B).
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During the 1980s–1990s, geochemical analyses provided other lines of evidence to
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assume the relatively steady-state growth of total continental volume (e.g., McLennan
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and Taylor, 1982; McCulloch and Bennett, 1994; Fig. 1B). In addition, anatomy of major
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continents with distinct age composition became much clearer than before, particularly in
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North America, by detailed field mapping and geochronological studies (e.g., Hoffman,
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1988; Bowring et al., 1998). The initiation/operation of plate tectonics in the early Earth
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was practically proved by concrete geological lines of evidence of oceanic
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subduction-related rock units (accretionary complex and arc garnitoid) and horizontal
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layer-parallel shortening (duplex) structures (Sleep and Windley. 1982; Maruyama et al.,
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1991; Komiya et al. 1999, 2015; Komiya and Maruyama, 2011; Kusky et al., 2013). They
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explained that plate tectonics started during the early Archean or even in the Hadean.
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Strongly opposing this view, some researchers insist for no operation of plate tectonics
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during the Archean; by estimating relatively low density with thicker basaltic crust, ca. 4
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times thicker than the present, for example, Davies (1992, 1995) argued that Archean
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oceanic crust was thus too buoyant to be subducted. Some geophysical models also insist
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that plate subduction was highly limited with assumed warm Archean mantle, much
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warmer than today because of highly depleted peridotitic mantle lithosphere (e.g., O’Neil
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et al., 2007; Korenaga, 2008). These claims can be reasonably refuted by considering
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slab melting and mineral-phase change in deeper mantle (Komiya et al., 2004). Recently,
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more actualistic geophysical models with respect to mineral physics (e.g., Ogawa, 2007,
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2014; van Hunen et al., 2008; Sizova et al., 2010; Fischer et al., 2016) suggested that a
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certain kind of plate subduction, not necessarily the same as modern one, has operated
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during the Archean, and probably started much earlier already in the Hadean.
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In the 1990s–2000s, a totally new input of information was given by the introduction
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of detrital zircon chronology (e.g. Gehrels and Dickinson, 1995; Gehrels et al., 1995).
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Detrital zircons from the Archean Narryer complex (Yilgarn Craton, W. Australia)
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positively suggested that the production of felsic continental crust has started already in
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the mid-Hadean (Mojzsis et al., 2001; Harrison et al., 2005, 2008; Ushikubo et al., 2008;
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Carley et al., 2015). This notion is contradictory with the conventional view on the
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Hadean crust (e,g, McLennan and Taylor, 1982; McCulloch and Bennett, 1994), as many
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researchers still considered that ancient crusts were originally komatiitic/basaltic without
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any granitoid produced by arc magmatism (Griffin et al., 2014; Nebel et al., 2014;
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Reimenik et al., 2014; Kamber, 2015; Gaschnig et al., 2016).
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On the other hand, Rino et al. (2004, 2008) analyzed age spectra of detrital zircons in
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river sands from extant modern continents, in particular, U-Pb age spectra of detrital
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zircons of deltaic river sands from the Mississippi River, and compared the results with
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the surface crustal age distribution of North American Craton with lesser Precambrian
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sedimentary covers. Consequently they demonstrated that the river sand composition
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faithfully reflect the crustal composition of the provenance, regardless of orogenic
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disturbance by the Rocky mountains and/or terrigenous noise by the Quaternary
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glacier-interglacial cycles. This result confirmed that crustal composition of hinterland is
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by and large reflected in river sands deposited at lower streams of a major river with large
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drainage system, when the crustal basement is extensively exposed. Essentially similar
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results were obtained also from other continents (Rino et al., 2008). Although almost
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parallel to each other, the narrow gap space (shaded area in Fig. 1B) existing between the
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two cumulative curves by Ustunomiya et al. (2007) and Rino et al. (2008) suggests that
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the corresponding amount of continental crusts has disappeared by sedimentary recycling,
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particularly during the last one billion years. They indicate that continental crusts older
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than 2.3 Ga (i.e. the first half of the Earth history) merely occupy no more than 20% of all
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continents, and those of > 3 Ga are quite rare (Fig. 1B), in good agreement with actual age
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proportion of crust on extant continents (Fig. 1A).
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By assuming that oceanic subduction has produced granitic crust continuously since
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the Archean, a huge amount of buoyant continental crust is expected to have formed and
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accumulated on the planet’s surface according to the elapsed time. Nonetheless, this is
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not the case that we observe on extant continents, as mentioned above. This
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disagreement between the long elapsed time and smaller remnants of older crusts can be 6
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reasonably explained only when older continental crusts disappeared from the surface
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secondarily. As observed in modern Earth, granitic continental crust is formed under the
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operation of plate tectonics, in particular, along active subduction zones; on the other
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hand, plate subduction can cause significant volume reduction of continental crust
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through subduction erosion, sediment subduction, and island arc subduction (von Huene
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and Lallemand, 1990; Scholl and von Huene, 2007; 2009; Clift et al., 2009; Yamamoto et
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al., 2009; Isozaki et al., 2010). Recent estimates on the global volume of global crust
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generation and destruction along modern subduction zones show that the rate of
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destruction equals or even exceeds the production (e.g. Clift et al., 2009; Stern, 2011).
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Recent seismic tomography data also suggest the occurrence of large amounts of recycled
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silicic crustal material in the mantle (Kawai et al., 2009, 2013; Ichikawa et al., 2013;
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Garnero et al., 2016).
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Recent compilations of large dataset (ten thousands of ages from multiple sources)
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of detrital zircon ages, for minimizing local bias, recognized some peaks in zircon age
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(Condie et al., 2009; Belousova et al., 2010; Voice et al.. 2011; Roberts and Spencer,
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2015). These distinct peaks apparently correspond to the timings of supercontinent
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amalgamation during the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic (Rino et al., 2004, 2008; Condie et
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al., 2009). Some researchers proposed that episodic production of juvenile crust caused
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by mantle plumes related to break-up of supercontinents (Rino et al., 2004; Condie et al.,
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2009). Other researchers pointed out that the continental crust would obtain preservation
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potential through shielding continental inboard from subduction zones during
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supercontinental periods (Hawkesworth et al., 2009; Roberts, 2012). These discussions
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highlighted contrasting views on the process of construction of continental crust, i.e.
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episodic production versus preservation potential. To date, diverse models have been
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proposed for the secular change in total continental volume through time (Fig. 1B);
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however, it is too crude to interpret the accumulated age spectra without checking
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depositional ages and/or settings of host sandstones because of significant destruction of
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older continental crust through time. As such a major obstacle exists in reconstructing
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precise volume of ancient continents, the secular change in age structure of continental
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crust through time has not yet been clearly demonstrated.
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Age structure is one of the fundamental parameters for population dynamics
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(Veizer and Jansen, 1985). Without any recycling at all, an accumulated age curve of
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modern river sand can easily lead/reconstruct those for any given time in the past (Fig.
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1C); however, we must admit that such an ideal case is extremely rare. The evolution of
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continental crusts indeed occurred not in steady-state but with volatile changes of
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production and destruction through the Earth’s history.
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In this study, first we analyzed age spectra of detrital zircons from 4 Archean
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sandstones collected from above-unconformity horizons in Australia, North America,
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and Africa. On the basis of the present data, together with previously reported data, we
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compiled the age structure of detrital zircons for several time-bins subdivided by
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depositional ages of host sandstones. This compilation led us detect a contrasting aspect
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in age spectra of detrital zircons between pre-2.3 Ga interval and post-1.0 Ga one, which
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likely suggests that a major change in age structure of continents has occurred sometime
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in mid-Precambrian time. This article discusses the secular change in age structure of the
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continents through time in order to document a general trend of continental crust
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formation in a water-lain terrestrial planet like the Earth.
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2. Age spectra of detrital zircons of supra-unconformity
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Archean sandstones
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We collected Archean sandstone samples on purpose mostly from horizons immediately
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above major unconformities of global extent. We assume well matured sandstones may
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guarantee long-distance transportation through the drainage, and above-unconformity
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sandstone may faithfully represent an average age structure of crustal basement of a
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craton/continent with the greatest exposure.
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2.1. Samples
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We collected Archean sandstones from the three representative Archena cratons; i.e.,
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the Pilbara craton in Western Australia, Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa, and
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Wyoming craton in North America (Fig. 3). The Pilbara Craton has extensive Archean
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(ca. 3.7–2.9 Ga) granitoid-greenstone belts (Bickle, 1980; Van Kranendonk et al., 2007),
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of which basement is unconformably overlain by a 2.8–2.2 Ga volcano-sedimentary unit
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called the Mt. Bruce Supergroup (Fig. 3; Nelson et al., 1999). We collected two sandstone
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samples; i.e., one from the 2.6 Ga Jeerina Formation in the Fortescue Group at WGS84
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GPS coordinate (–22.13283, 119.00139) and the other from ca. 2.3 Ga Turee Creek
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Group at (–22.63582, 116.32702).
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The Kaapvaal Craton also has Archean (ca. 3.7–2.7 Ga) granite-greenstone belts, of
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which basement is unconformably covered by the ca. 2.9–2.2 Ga sedimentary sequences
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called the Pongola Supergroup (Nelson et al., 1999; Cornell et al., 1996). This unit is
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well-known for its glacial tillite that suggests the earliest icehouse period in the Earth’s
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history, and the unconformities above and below likely marked craton-wide erosion and
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the resultant extensive exposure of crustal basement rocks in the hinterland. We collected
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one sample of quartzitic sandstone from the Mozaan Group at WGS84 GPS coordinate
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(–27.45935, 31.27200).
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The Wyoming Craton is one of the Archean continental blocks in the Laurentia shield
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(Condie, 1969; Hoffman, 1989). The granitic rocks of the Wyoming Craton range in age
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over one billion years from 3.5 to 2.5 Ga (Foster et al., 2006; Chamberlain et al., 2003).
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Along the southern margin of the craton, the Paleoproterozoic (ca. 2.5–2.0 Ga)
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sedimentary unit called the Snowy Pass Supergroup develops, unconformably overlying
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the Archean basement (Karlstrom et al., 1983). The sedimentary setting of the Snowy
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Pass Supergroup has been explained to have formed in a rift basin along a passive
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continental margin (Karlstrom et al., 1983; Houston et al., 1992). We collected one
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well-matured orthoquartzite sample (WY3) from the Medicine Peak Quartzite of the
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Snowy Pass Supergroup at GPS coordinate (41.34092, –106.30357).
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interpreted to have deposited on ca. 2.3 Ga subtidal delta plain (Karlstrom et al., 1983;
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Houston et al., 1992).
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2.2. Dating procedures Detrital zircons were mounted in acrylic resin, and polished until the midsections of
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the zircons were exposed. Cathodoluminescence images were obtained using a Gatan
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Chroma CL2 to select spots of analysis. U-Pb age dating of the zircons were carried out
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using a Nu AttoM high-resolution ICP-MS (Nu instruments, UK) coupled with a
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NWR-193 laser-ablation system (ESI, USA), which uses a 193 nm ArF excimer laser.
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The laser ablation was made under the helium ambient gas within the micro cell of < 1
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mL (Two Volume Cell I). The aerosol of the ablated sample and helium gas were mixed
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with argon gas downstream of the cell. The helium minimizes redeposition of the sample
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ejecta or condensates while argon provides efficient sample transport to the ICP-MS
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(Eggins et al., 1998; Günther and Heinrich, 1999; Jackson et al., 2004). The
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signal-smoothing device was applied to minimize the introduction of large aerosols into
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the ICP (Tunheng and Hirata, 2004).
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The ICP-MS operational settings were optimized using the Pb and U signals
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obtained with continuous laser ablation on 91,500 zircon standard (Wiedenbeck et al.,
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1995, 2004) and NIST SRM 610 to provide maximum sensitivity while maintaining low
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oxide formation (ThO/Th < 1%). An Hg-trap device with an activated charcoal filter
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was applied to the Ar make-up gas before mixing with He carrier gas (Hirata et al.,
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2005).
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of 204Pb were estimated by using the measured 202Hg/204(Hg+Pb) ratio and isotopic ratio
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of natural Hg (202Hg/204Hg = 29.863/6.865=4.369; de Laeter et al., 2003). When over
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0.001 of apparent 204Pb/206Pb data for unknown zircon sample was obtained, data of the
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sample were rejected because it is considerable as the contamination of inclusions.
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Isotopes of 202Hg, 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, 232Th, and 238U were monitored. Intensity
Background intensities were interpolated using an averaged value among two 11
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background data acquired before and after each unknown sample groups. The mean and
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standard error of the measured ratios among each eight 91500 and/or Plešovice zircon
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standard data bracketing unknown sample groups were calculated, and the mean and
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standard error measured for 91500 and/or Plešovice zircon standard were applied for
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age estimate and uncertainty propagation. Analytical uncertainties join the
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reproducibility of the zircon standard analysis (91500 and/or Plešovice, Sláma et al.,
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2008) with counting statistics.
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2.3. Results and Age spectra
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All analytical results of detrital zircon U-Pb age dating by using a LA-ICPMS are
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summarized in Table A1 in appendix. Figure 4 shows age spectra and cumulative age
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frequency distribution of the analyzed detrital zircons.
All zircons from the four analyzed samples have U-Pb ages younger than 3.5 Ga,
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i.e., Paleoarchean.
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from the Pilbara and Wyoming cratons (Samples RM246 and WY3) share the same age
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cluster of ca. 2.7–2.8 Ga zircons (Fig. 4). The 2.9 Ga sandstone from the Kaapvaal
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craton (Sample PP78) solely has a major peak of ca. 3.1 Ga zircon age, whereas the
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former two merely have minor peak of this age.
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It is clear that the three samples of ca. 2.3 and 2.6 Ga sandstones
The 2.8–2.7 Ga cluster of detrital zircons is comparable with those reported not only
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from various late Archean to Paleoproterozoic sandstones (e.g. Condie et al., 2009; Voice
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et al., 2010) but also from modern river sand (Rino et al., 2004, 2008). On the other hand,
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the 3.1 Ga peak has not been clearly shown in the previous compilation as the 2.8–2.7 Ga
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one. This difference in age spectrum of detrital zircons likely reflects the secular change 12
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in age structure of continents vigorous tectono-magmatism around 2.8–2.7 Ga, which
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will be discussed in detail later.
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3. Data compilation
In this chapter, we show detail of compilation of previously reported data together with the above our analytical results.
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3.1. Conditions for a compilation
For the compilation of U-Pb ages of detrital zircons, we focus on clastic rocks
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deposited specifically in extensional tectonic settings. In such settings, steep mountain
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ranges and other geographical protruding are generally minor and sediment receives
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matured terrigenous clastics from the wide range of provenances. Age frequency
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distribution of detrital zircons in such sedimentary rocks likely reflects the rock
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compositions in provenances in a given time internal. In contrast, clastic rocks
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accumulated along compressional tectonic settings, such as accretionary complex and
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forearc basin, would have large bias owing to steep mountain ranges, active volcanic
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chain, and exposed granitic batholith (e.g. Cawood et al., 2012; Aoki et al., 2014). In this
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regard, the latter group is unsuitable for the purpose of this study. All of the 16 rivers in
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Rino et al. (2008), compiling U-Pb ages of detrital zircons in modern river mouths, run on
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passive continental margins (Fig. 2).
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In order to collect world wide data for the compilation, this study focuses on periods
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at ca. 2.9, 2.6, 2.3, 1.0, and 0.6 Ga which relatively abundant in sedimentary rocks. Since 13
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ca. 3 Ga, large unconformities on continental free-board emerged, and mature
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sedimentary rocks such as quartz arenite have been deposited on the unconformities
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(Ronov, 1964; Rogers, 1996; Veizer and Mackenzie, 2003). Note that this compilation
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of detrital zircon ages includes only crustal ages of continental blocks and does not
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include the fragmental continental crust, such as oceanic island arcs. Thus, this study
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estimates “age structure of the continents”, not “age structure of the all continental crust
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on the Earth’s surface”.
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To reduce local bias, we selected one rock sample on each craton for the compilation
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at 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga. For the compilation at 1.0 and 0.6 Ga, localities were selected to
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cover the whole Earth. In case that more than two age frequency distributions have been
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reported from several sequences in a locality, this study chooses one of them according to
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maturity of the sediments and/or width of age spectrum. Nonetheless these criteria may
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be still flawed to recover precise age structures of continents in the past, they are
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important to obtain global trend of age structure of continents with bias as few as
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possible.
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3.2. Integration of age data set
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This study compiled our analytical data described above with previously reported
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data shown in Fig. 2. We selected data with the following criteria; i.e. ages (1) dated by
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in-situ analysis with LA-ICP-MS, SIMS, and SHRIMP, (2) of igneous origin guaranteed
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by oscillatory zoning (no metamorphic zircons), and (3) with concordance and/or
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discordance less than 10% in U-Pb isotopic systematics.
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Although source rocks of individual detrital zircons cannot be identified by U-Pb
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dating and other geochemical analysis, we suppose that all detrital zircons have been
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derived from granitoids composing continental crust. All localities, references of data
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sources and age frequency distributions of each data are summarized in Table A1 in
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Appendix. By adding all these age data, we obtain averaged age spectra of detrital
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zircons for five periods (2.9. 2.5, 2.3, 1.0, and 0.6 Ga) individually. Fig. 5A illustrates the
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averaged age spectra for these 5 periods together with that of modern river sands (Rino et
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al., 2008) in the form of cumulative curves normalized to 100%. Note that the vertical
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axis of Fig. 5A represents not the volume of the continental crust but the percentage in
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age.
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By compiling detrital zircon ages from modern river sands, Rino et al. (2008)
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integrated individual age frequency distributions after the adjustment according to area of
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each river’s drainage basin. In this study, in contrast, age frequency distributions from
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each rock sample are regarded as having the same weight as a whole, because it is
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unfeasible to estimate precise areas of ancient provenance. As to checking possible local
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bias, we examined alternatively the integration in different combination of data sources,
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and the results confirmed that the synthesized age spectra show more or less the same
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pattern regardless of combination (Fig. A1 in Appendix).
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3.3. Fitting of the result of compilation by linear function In order to discuss more detailed secular changes in age structure of continent, each curve is fitted to polygonal line function. The function is represented by
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− where t means an age (i.e. time, in Ma), T is depositional age of compiled rock samples
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(in Ma), and X represents an age of the bending point in this function (in Ma). Parameter
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X, a fitting parameter for a curve, is computed through a least-square method.
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Value of X – T [M.yr.] means a time span for once-produced continental crust being
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vanished by recycling processes at each period. In this paper, this time span is referred as
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“continental average cycle”. This word does not mean the span in which all continental
331
crust is completely disappeared or replaced, but something like an average lifetime. The
332
fitting lines are shown in Fig. 5B. The detailed results of fitting are given in Table 1. As
333
values of asymptotic standard error of the fitting parameter X are between 1 and 2 Ma,
334
these lines are regarded well fitted.
M AN U
TE D EP AC C
335
SC
328
16
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336
4. Discussion
337
4.1. Major change in preservation of continental crust between 2.3 and 1.0 Ga
338
The results of compilation shown in Fig. 5 clearly demonstrate several interesting
340
aspects of age composition of Precambrian continents. First, the three cumulative curves
341
for age structure of continents at 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga (3 lines in reddish colored in Fig. 5)
342
apparently run nearly parallel to each other. This observation suggests that the age
343
structure of continents was rather constant during the late Archean to early Proterozoic (at
344
least between 2.9 and 2.3 Ga). This also indicates that the averaged residence time of
345
crusts has been almost constant between 2.9–2.3 Ga probably because a good balance
346
was kept between the production and destruction of continental crusts. In other words,
347
the pre-2.3 Ga continents have comprised solely young crusts no older than 800 million
348
years old.
TE D
M AN U
SC
RI PT
339
Second, post-1.0 Ga crusts had relatively wider age range, over 1300 m.y., with
350
respect to the pre-2.3 Ga crusts (Fig. 5B). In particular, the modern river sands have the
351
widest age range of detrital zircon, which reaches ca. 2900 million years, i.e., 3-4 times
352
longer than those of pre-2.3 Ga sandstones.
353
continental crusts reaches 4000 million years (Bowring et al., 1988).
Moreover, the age range of extant
AC C
EP
349
354
Third, the cumulative curves of 2.9, 2.6, and 2.3 Ga are obviously steeper than those of
355
1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga (Fig. 5B). These observations indicate that the pre-2.3 Ga balance
356
between the production and destruction of continental crusts has been lost by the
357
Neoproterozoic, and that the post-1.0 Ga continental crusts tend to be preserved more
358
efficiently than before, in a form of crusts with wider age ranges, such as North 17
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
359
America. The present analysis clarified that a major change in the preservation mode of
360
continental crusts has occurred sometime between 2.3 and 1.0 Ga, probably suggesting a
361
significant shift in tectonic regime during the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic.
362
following sections, we will discuss more details of the growth pattern of continents
363
though time.
RI PT
364
4.2. Net growth and preservation bias of continents
SC
365
In the
Crude “continental crust production” is clearly different from the “growth of
367
continents”. The former represents the total amount of produced continental crust that
368
simply increases/accumulates along time, regardless of secondary disappearance.
369
rate of the former has been controlled essentially by the long-term change in mantle
370
temperature, via mantle convection.
371
difference in volume between pre-existing continents and those newly added by arc
372
magmatism and/or secondarily disappeared. Although not much precise, it is easier to
373
estimate the modern rate of continental growth on the basis of direct observations on
374
magmatism and tectonics; however, that of the past appears difficult in general without
375
direct measurements.
376
growth by checking detrital zircon records in ancient terrigenous clastics.
The
EP
TE D
In contrast, the latter corresponds to the final
Nonetheless, we can reconstruct the history of continental
AC C
377
M AN U
366
Age structure of a particular continent recorded its long-term history of the balance
378
between the production and destruction rates of continental crust.
379
regime, in general, continental crust is formed mostly by arc magmatism along
380
subduction zones, whereas pre-existing continental crust can be often erased by
381
subduction erosion/sediment subduction (Scholl and von Huene, 2007, 2009; Clift et al., 18
Under plate tectonic
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
2009; Yamamoto et al., 2009; Stern, 2011). Without secondary disappearance of the
383
continental crusts, continental volume will increase monotonically as long as
384
subduction-related magmatism continues. In this case, the slope of cumulative curve of
385
crustal age changes simply according to the production rate by magmatism (Fig. 6A).
386
RI PT
382
On the other hand, in cases with both crustal production and destruction, the following two factors control the age structure of a continent, i.e., “net continental growth”
388
and “preservation bias” according to the heterogeneity in age of crustal rocks. “Net
389
growth” in a continent corresponds to the difference in volume between juvenile
390
continental crust newly formed by arc magmatism and the pre-existing crust secondarily
391
disappearing by subduction erosion. Consequently, the secular change in volume of
392
continental crust can have three options: (1) increase by over-production (Fig. 6B, left
393
column), (2) no change by balanced production and destruction (Fig. 6B, middle column),
394
and (3) decrease by over-erosion (Fig. 6B, right column).
TE D
M AN U
SC
387
“Preservation bias” represents the degree of vulnerability for variously aged crust to
396
secondary disappearance in regard of spatial arrangement of crusts within a continent. For
397
modern continental blocks, relatively young continental crusts tend to be formed along
398
its peripheries. For example, the North American continent has relatively old continental
399
crusts in its interior (the Canadian shield) surrounded by younger orogenic fronts along
400
the continental peripheries (the Appalchian and Cordilleran belts; Fig. 1A). With such
401
an uneven distribution of crustal ages in a continent, younger continental crust may
402
easily suffer crustal recycling and reworking processes by active subduction related
403
tectonism, whereas older crust in the interior remain preferentially untouched. Thus
404
“preservation bias” has two end-member options, i.e. (1) with strong bias in spatial
AC C
EP
395
19
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
distribution of crustal ages, relatively older crusts are selectively preserved (Fig. 6C), and
406
(2) without bias, continental crusts of various ages are preserved or eroded out
407
proportionally (Fig. 6B). In general, larger continents tend to have strong bias mostly
408
owing to their longer history with multiple tectonics episodes.
RI PT
405
Given these two factors controlling age structure of a continent, Fig. 6B categorizes
410
possible patterns of continental growth. Fig. 6B illustrates three possible options with no
411
preservation bias. In the case of net increase in continental crust (Fig. 6B-1), the slope of
412
cumulative age gradually turns gentler in the same manner as Fig. 6A. The starting point
413
of the line at the base indicates the age of the oldest crust, and its position shift toward the
414
younger direction. In the case of no change in continental volume (Fig. 6B-2), the
415
production and destruction of continental crust balances to keep the line of accumulated
416
age in the same shape (slope) but with gradually shifted toward the younger direction. In
417
the case of net decrease (Fig. 6B-3), the continental crust disappears much faster than the
418
coeval production. Thus, the young continental crust dominates more, making the slopes
419
much steeper, and shifting the line as a whole toward the younger direction.
EP
TE D
M AN U
SC
409
When we take “preservation bias” into consideration, cases will be more diverse. Fig.
421
6C-4, -5, and -6 illustrates three options with strong preservation bias. In the case of net
422
increasing or no change in volume of a continent (Fig. 6C-4 and -5), secular change in age
423
structures is apparently the same as that of Fig. 6A. On the contrary, in the case of net
424
decrease (Fig. 6C-6), a proportion of old continental crust becomes relatively larger
425
through the selective elimination of younger crusts along continental margins. In this case,
426
slopes of accumulated lines become gentler, and the oldest age of crust shift toward the
AC C
420
20
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
427
older direction. Consequently, a unique pattern occurs with three lines (t0, t1 and t2)
428
crossing each other in the middle, as shown in Fig. 6C-6.
430
RI PT
429
4.3. Growth of continents since the late Archean
On the basis of the compilation of age spectra of detrital zircons from 2.9, 2.6, 1.0,
432
and 0.6 Ga sandstones together with that of modern river sands, we discuss the pattern
433
and change in the growth of continents since the Mesoarchean. On the left hand side of
434
Fig. 5, three cumulative curves for 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga continental crusts (reddish colored
435
lines) are running almost parallel to each other, and the widths of age variation are
436
relatively narrow. These correspond to the pattern shown in Fig. 6C-2, suggesting that
437
continents have been produced constantly but at the same time suffering severe
438
destruction during the mid-Archean to the early Proterozoic time. Consequently, the
439
total volume of continents remained constant or slightly increased (Fig. 7). Although
440
the occurrence of 2.9 to 2.3 Ga terrigenous sedimentary rocks has been used as evidence
441
for the extensive exposure of continental landmass(es) in the Archean to early
442
Proterozpoic (Ronov, 1964; Rogers, 1996), no data exist for any quantitative estimate of
443
total mass of continental crusts during the Archean and Proterozoic.
M AN U
TE D
EP
AC C
444
SC
431
The narrow age widths of the three Archean lines (Fig. 5) indicate that continental
445
crusts have not been effectively preserved during the Archean, instead they were
446
destructed rapidly in short periods. In other words, rigorous recycling operated for
447
granitic crusts, and most of the Archean continental crusts were likely subducted into the
448
mantle.
21
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In contrast, the slope of the 1.0 Ga cumulative curve (middle in Fig. 5) is gentler than
450
that of 2.3 Ga. This corresponds to the pattern shown in Fig. 6C-4 or -5, suggesting that
451
net continental growth has occurred during this period. Although destruction had affected
452
both younger and older continental crusts, the preservation potential of older crusts
453
became probably higher around 1.0 Ga. Considering ca. 1.8 Ga amalgamation of the
454
Nuna continent proposed on the basis of geological observations in Laurentia (Hoffman,
455
1988), we speculate that the turning point arrived around 1.8 Ga; the first large continent
456
appeared and the preservation bias of continental crusts increased after that (Fig. 7).
M AN U
SC
RI PT
449
In short, the present compilations suggests some aspects of continental growth
458
which have not been recognized before; i.e., (1) constant or slight increase in continental
459
volume between ca. 2.9 and 2.3 Ga, (2) net growth of continental crust between ca. 2.3
460
and 1.0 Ga with drastic increase of crustal preservation around 1.8 Ga, (3) net decrease
461
after 1.0 Ga to the present, and (4) total volume of the continents reached maximum
462
during the Proterozoic, particularly between 2.3 Ga and 1.0 Ga.
464
EP
463
TE D
457
4.4. Post-1.0 Ga decrease of continental crust? As shown in Fig. 5, the slopes of 1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga cumulative curves are gentler
466
than those of 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga, and more interestingly, they become gentler along time.
467
This observation indicates that the preservation has become more common for older
468
crusts during the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic with respect to the Archean and early
469
Proterozoic, as discussed above.
AC C
465
470
It is also noteworthy that these 3 lines cross each other in the middle (Fig. 5B), just
471
like the case of Fig. 6C-6. This simply indicates that younger crusts occur less abundantly 22
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
in provenance, but never that older crusts were newly added. As older crusts may
473
naturally decrease or remain the same in amount, these 3 lines should not cross in reality.
474
Instead, the apparent crossing suggests that the total volume of continental crusts may has
475
changed, in particular, has decreased along time after 1.0 Ga. In this regard, for avoiding
476
the mutual crossing of these lines, cumulative curves for 1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga continental
477
crusts need to be modified (Fig. 7). The height of the Proterozoic peak between 2.3–1.0
478
Ga is normalized on the basis of the vertical expansion of the 1.0 and 0.6 Ga cumulative
479
curves.
M AN U
SC
RI PT
472
On the basis of the above discussion on secular change, we tentatively place the
481
continental growth curve on about 50–80 % volume of the modern continents, as shown
482
in Fig. 7. The results shown in Fig. 7 suggest that at 1.0 Ga continents of nearly 150 %
483
volume of modern continents existed, and also at 0.6 Ga 130 %, respectively. The total
484
continental mass likely reached the maximum in the Earth’s history, ca. 150% of the
485
modern continents on the planet’s surface in volume between 2.3 and 1.0 Ga. On the other
486
hand, this diagram indeed suggests the gradual decrease in total continental mass during
487
the last 1 billion years. Such a notion of decreasing continental mass in the past has never
488
been discussed on the basis of solid geological data like the present zircon age spectra;
489
however, this appears indeed consistent with on-going phenomena along modern active
490
arc-trench systems with severe tectonics erosion and/or arc subduction rather than the
491
addition of juvenile crusts (Yamamoto et al., 2009).
AC C
EP
TE D
480
492
23
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
493
4.5. Pre-3.0 Ga growth of continental crust The present compilation provided new clues to interpret the growth pattern of
495
continents after 3.0 Ga as discussed above; nonetheless, not much information were
496
available for the pre-3.0 Ga conditions. On the basis of previously published works,
497
here we summarize the current understanding of the Paleoarchean and Hadean
498
continental growth before 3.0 Ga.
The onset timing of oceanic plate subduction in the Earth’s history has been much
SC
499
RI PT
494
500
debated.
501
operation of plate subduction already in the Archean, at least during the Mesoarchean
502
(ca. 3 Ga) (Hoffman, 1989; Card, 1990; Kimura et al., 1993; Dirks and Jelsma, 1998;
503
White et al., 2003; Percival et al., 2006; Korsch et al., 2011; Zhai and Santosh, 2011).
504
Some researchers further suggest much earlier operation even in the Eoarhcean. The
505
most solid line of evidence is in the recognition of Eoarchean (3.9–3.8 Ga) accretionary
506
complexex in Greenland and Labrador, Canada (Komiya and Maruyama, 1991;
507
Maruyama et al., 1991; Komiya et al., 1999, 2015; Shimojo et al., 2016). By identifying
508
two critical features of oceanic suduction-related tectonics along active trench, i.e., a
509
unique
510
layer-parallel-shortening structure called duplex (Isozaki et al., 1990; Matsuda and
511
Isozaki, 1991; Isozaki 2014), they concluded that oceanic subduction of essentially the
512
same style as modern examples, therefore, plate tectonics has operated already in the
513
early Archean time.
association
called
ocean
plate
stratigraphy
(OPS)
and
AC C
rock
EP
TE D
M AN U
Conventional geological observations in the Archean cratons suggest the
514
In addition, the extensive occurrence of granitic crusts was suggested also by the
515
discovery of Hadean zircons because igneous zircon crystallizes most abundantly in 24
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
granitoids (Wilde et al., 2001; Yamamoto et al., this issue; Isozaki et al., this issue). Other
517
isotopic signatures of the Hadean zircons also positively suggest that the production of
518
zircon-bearing felsic continental crust has started by ca. 4.3 Ga (e.g. Mojzsis et al., 2001;
519
Harrison et al., 2005, 2008; Ushikubo et al., 2008).
RI PT
516
The main debate against the pre-3.0 Ga plate tectonics (e.g. Nebel et al., 2014; Kamber,
521
2015) has been based on the estimated thick Archean basaltic crust with extremely low
522
density with respect to mantle rocks (Davies, 1992, 1995), which was too buoyant to be
523
subducted. In addition, assumed warm Archean mantle was also regarded to suggest the
524
prohibition of oceanic subduction into deeper mantle (e.g., O’Neil et al., 2007; Korenaga,
525
2008). Nevertheless, slab melting and mineral-phase change in deeper mantle were
526
overlooked in these notions (Komiya et al., 2004), and the latest actualistic geophysical
527
models (e.g., Ogawa, 2007, 2014; van Hunen et al., 2008; Sizova et al., 2010; Fischer et
528
al., 2016) instead suggest the earlier operation of plate subduction already in the Eorchean,
529
and even in the Hadean.
TE D
M AN U
SC
520
Petrological analysis indicated that the mantle temperature during this period was
531
about 100–200 ˚C warmer than today (Fig. 9A; Komiya, 2004; Herzberg et al., 2010),
532
which may have led a specific tectonic regime like chaotic subduction with small
533
oceanic plates (Yanagisawa and Yamagishi, 2005; Sizova et al., 2010; Ogawa, 2014;
534
Fischer et al., 2016). The putative chaotic subduction of numerous small oceanic plates
535
may explain the geological observations of narrow-shaped Archean crustal blocks,
536
which led some geologists imagine that Archean continental growth essentially has
537
occurred in multiple parallel collision of mid-oceanic island arcs (Fig. 8A; de Wit and
538
Hart, 1983; Hoffman, 1989; Santosh et al. 2009).
AC C
EP
530
25
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
In contrast, perpendicular collision of an island arc to another one usually ends up in
540
smooth subduction of colliding arc with lesser contribution to crustal growth with
541
respect to parallel collision (Yamamoto et al., 2010; Santosh et al. 2009). As parallel
542
collision may occur less frequently in general, most of the Hadean-Eoarchean continental
543
crusts were likely subducted without leaving much traces on surface, and recycled into
544
the mantle.
RI PT
539
The early embryonic continents large enough to have continental free-board would
546
have formed through the multiple parallel collision/amalgamation of minor elongated
547
island arcs (Fig. 9 C and D). The dominant occurrence of Mesoarchean terrigenous clastic
548
rocks with extremely high maturity, e.g. quartz arenite (Ronov, 1964; Veizer and
549
Mackenzie, 2003), indicates the first appearance of relatively large continental entities
550
was ca. 3.2 Ga (Rogers, 1996; Rogers and Santosh, 2003).
552
M AN U
TE D
551
SC
545
4.6. A brief summary of continental growth On the basis of the above discussion and the newly documented pattern change in
554
age structure of continental crusts, we summarize a brief history of continental growth
555
from the Hadean to the present by discriminating five distinct stages; i.e. (1) Stage 1
556
(4.5–4.4 Ga): formation of primordial crusts, (2) Stage 2 (4.4–3.2 Ga): production of
557
primitive continental crust mostly of oceanic island arc affinity, (3) Stage 3 (3.2–1.8 Ga):
558
emergence of small embryonic continents, (4) Stage 4 (1.8-1.0 Ga): development of
559
supercontinents, and (5) Stage 5 (1.0–0 Ga): operation of supercontinent cycle under
560
modern-style plate tectonics (Fig. 7).
AC C
EP
553
26
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
561
4.6.1. Satge 1 (4.5–4.4 Ga):
562
magma ocean, primordial crust was likely formed (Kramers, 2007); however, it has never
563
been identified yet (Yamamoto et al., in this issue; Isozaki et al., 2016 in this issue)
564
probably because the putative heavy meteorite bombardment after 4.4.Ga (Abramov et al,
565
2013; Marchi et al., 2014; Shibaike et al., 2016). Conventional understanding prefers
566
konatiitic/basaltic composition for the primodial crusts. On the other hand, in analogy to
567
the Moon’s crust, possible anorthositic crust and landmass composed of it are proposed
568
(Maruyama et al., 2013; Santosh et al., 2016 in this issue; Maruyama et al., in this issue);
569
nonetheless the details are still unknown.
570
4.6.2. Stage 2 (4.4–3.2 Ga):
571
gradually lowered, plate subduction eventually started sometime by the early Archean,
572
and possibly even in the earlier half of the Hadean. The Earth’s surface was probably
573
covered with numerous small oceanic plates that hosted many subduction zones with
574
intra-oceanic arcs during this period (Figs. 8A and 9). Granitic arc crusts were formed
575
not in a big size individually, but the large number of arcs in total produced a huge
576
amount of granitic crusts during this interval. On the other hand, the primordial
577
continental crusts and also juvenile ones were destroyed and transported into the mantle,
578
and the primodial ones were totally terminated on the planet’s surface (Azuma et al.,
579
2016; Ichikawa et al., 2016 in this issue).
580
4.6.3. Stage 3 (3.2–1.8 Ga): Through the island arcs accretion, embryonic continents
581
would appeared during this period. Sizes of many Archean blocks remained in extant
582
continents suggest that Archean island arcs have had more or less similar sizes (ca. 1,000
583
km long and 200 km wide or less) to modern ones; e.g., Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc (e.g. Card,
M AN U
SC
RI PT
Immediately after the > 4.4 Ga consolidation of
AC C
EP
TE D
As the surface temperature of the young planet
27
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
1990; Kimura et al., 1993; Dirks and Jelsma, 1998; White et al., 2003; Percival et al.,
585
2006; Korsch et al., 2011; Zhai and Santosh, 2011). Such a dimension further suggests the
586
average size of late Archean plates was comparable to the Philippine Sea Plate.
RI PT
584
The present compilation of detrital zircon data suggests that growth rate of
588
embryonic continents was extremely low during the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic (2.9
589
to 2.3 Ga; Fig. 7), and that average size of Archean embryonic continents was much
590
smaller than that of the modern ones. As most of their peripheries were likely surrounded
591
by subduction zones (Fig. 8B), the slow growth rate suggests that subduction itself may
592
have not contributed to net continental growth but induced ubiquitous recycling of the
593
continental crust by continuous subduction erosion. Consequently, embryonic continents
594
may have suffered more frequent replacement of older crusts by newer ones than younger
595
continents.
TE D
M AN U
SC
587
Some of those embryonic continents likely coalesced to form larger masses (Fig.
597
8B), and further accretion of island arcs also added more crusts. Following the
598
above-discussed average size of embryonic continents, the larger continental masses may
599
have reached the size of modern Greenland or Indian Peninsula. On the other hand,
600
continental break-up likely decomposed pre-existing continental masses into small
601
fragmental pieces. Repetition of these processes probably led the pre-2.3 Ga slow net
602
growth of continents, and most of older Archean continental crusts has been lost by this
603
period.
604
AC C
EP
596
4.6.4. Stage 4 (1.8–1.0 Ga):
Larger continents were formed through the
605
amalgamation of plural embryonic continents. By ca. 1.8 Ga, such a large continental
606
mass that can be called supercontinent appeared for the first time in history. The oldest 28
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
supercontinent has been assumed previously in the name of Nuna (Hoffman, 1988), and
608
more recently called Columbia (Rogers and Santosh, 2002; Zhang et al., 2012; Meert,
609
2012; Roberts, 2013). The Colombia Supercontinent had following unique features
610
distinct from younger supercontinents. For example, (1) Colombia was extremely stable
611
without major break-up for a long period. Frequent activities of dyke swarms and
612
A-type granite magmatism recorded the impingement of many mantle plume in the
613
domain of Columbia (e.g. Whitmeyer and Karlstrom, 2007; Gladkochub et al., 2010) but
614
no break-up occurred along with these. (2) Lesser number of passive continental
615
margins developed during this period (Bradley, 2008). (3) Continental growth during
616
this period was driven mainly by accretion of plural island arcs with juvenile continental
617
crust (e.g. Geraldes et al., 2001; Karlstrom et al., 2001; Whitmeyer and Karlstrom, 2007;
618
Korsch et al., 2011). (4) Ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks and eclogite
619
were rare. These suggest that continental collision has been extremely rare for a long
620
time until the next supercontinent Rodinia was formed at ca. 1.3–1.1 Ga (Brown, 2007).
621
Also active production of juvenile continental crust during this distinct period has
622
been suggested by previous U-Pb-Hf isotopic analysis and its compilation of the detrital
623
zircons (Roberts, 2012; Iizuka et al., 2013). The compilations in this study also support
624
the rapid continental growth during this period (Fig. 7). Debate continues to date
625
whether this increase in continental growth during this period was real or just an
626
artifact (Roberts, 2013).
AC C
EP
TE D
M AN U
SC
RI PT
607
627
We speculate that effective continental growth would have been performed by
628
intermittently repeated accretion of island arcs to stable continents (Fig. 8C). This was led
629
probably by the assumed higher mantle temperature, ca. 100°C higher than that of 29
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
modern mantle (Fig 9A; Komiya, 2004; Hertberg et al., 2010). Conditions of ceanic
631
plates were probably similar to those of the Archean ones; many oceanic island arcs were
632
probably generated in a similar way. On the other hand, older continental crusts were
633
protected from later tectonism around the peripheries, thus preferentially preserved in the
634
inner part of stable continents. Margins of a supercontinent were dominated mostly by
635
accreted juvenile island arc crusts rather than rocks of passive continental margin or
636
continental arc.
SC
RI PT
630
4.6.5. Stage 5 (1.0-0 Ma): The last fifth stage is characterized by modern-style plate
638
tectonics and Wilson cycle continuing since ca. 1.3–1.0 Ga building of the Rodinia
639
Supercontinent and ca. 0.7 Ga its breaking-up. As decreasing mantle potential
640
temperature (Fig. 9A), seawater was introduced into the mantle and lowered the viscosity
641
of mantle materials, which activated plate tectonics (Maruyama and Liou, 1998, 2005).
642
The size of oceanic plates became larger than previous ones, and number of oceanic
643
island arcs drastically decreased. Most of the current oceanic island arcs are situated in
644
western Pacific region and Caribbean Sea which occupy only about 5% of the Earth’s
645
surface (Yamamoto et al., 2010). Along subduction zones, long-lived Cordillera-type
646
orogeny has been dominant rather than accretion of island arcs. The compilation suggests
647
that volume of continents turned to decrease around 1.0 Ga. This estimation is consistent
648
with observations of modern subduction zones and Phanelozoic Pacific-type orogens
649
which are considered as decreasing or equilibrium of the continental mass (Scholl and
650
von Huene, 2007, 2009; Clift et al., 2009; Isozaki et al., 2010).
AC C
EP
TE D
M AN U
637
651
30
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
652
4.7. More granitic crusts in mantle As to the occurrence of continental crusts on the Earth’s surface, we documented
654
that huge amounts of granitic crusts have been produced and disappeared in the past
655
probably since the Hadean. On the contrary from the mantle perspective, a huge amount
656
of granitic material has been incorporated into the mantle ever since the Archean time. It
657
is not easy to quantitatively estimate the total amount of granitic material in the mantle,
658
however, we have some clues to check it in terms of high-pressure mineralogy and
659
seismology. Considering mineral phase transition of quartz to stishovite in mantle depth,
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Kawai et al. (2009) utilized the first principle calculation to estimate the extent of
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possible host zone for granitic material within mantle, and suggested that up to seven
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times greater volume of extant continents of the world can be stored in the mantle
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transition zone and its surroundings in 270–800 km deep mantle, the “second continent”
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independent of the first continents on the surface. Adding onto the secular change curve
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for continental mass on the surface, Fig. 10 illustrates our speculative model for the
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entire amount of continental crusts produced in our planet throughout history. Ever
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since the Archean, a large amount of ancient continental crusts of granitic composition
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has been possibly accumulated in mid-mantle depth. The occurrence of a large mass of
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granitic composition has a profound significance, as granitoids contain abundant
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radiogenic elements, therefore, contribute to heat budget and convention pattern of the
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mantle (Senshu et al., 2009). This claimed “hidden” second continent has not been
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detected yet; however, we hope more sophisticated tomographic analysis may confirm it
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in the future.
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Finally, most continental crusts formed in the Earth’s history were likely recycled
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into the mantle rather than remaining on the planetary surface. Such a new view of granite 31
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subduction is totally different from what we have believed before; i.e. continents once
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formed would never disappear from the planet’s surface.
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5. Conclusions In addition to the new U-Pb dating of detrital zircon ages for 4 Archean sandstones
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from the Pilbara (Australia), Wyoming (N. America), and Kaapvaal (Africa) cratons, we
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compiled previously published detrital zircon ages in order to recognize the overall
683
evolutional trend of continents. The unique approach of this study is in checking and
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comparing detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra, for 6 distinct time intervals, i.e., 2.9, 2.6, 2.3,
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1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga. The results of the compilations demonstrated the following episodes
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in the history of continental crust; (1) low growth rate of the continents due to the short
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cycle in production/destruction of granitic crust during 2.9 to 2.3 Ga, (2) net increase in
688
volume of the continents from 2.3 to 1.0 Ga, and 3) net decrease in volume of the
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continents from 1.0 Ga to the current. Consequently, the present study documented an
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alternative history of continental growth, which is different from the previous models in
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several aspects.
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We propose ca. 3.2, 1.8, and 1.0 Ga as turning points in growth of continents. These
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correspond to the timing of major changes in size of continents. In the Archean and
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Paleoproterozoic, the embryonic continents were smaller than the modern continents,
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probably owing to the relatively rapid production and destruction of continental crust.
696
This is indeed reflected in the crustal age structure of modern continents that usually have
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relatively small amount of Archean crusts with respect to the post-Archean ones. During
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the Mesoproterozoic, plural continents amalgamated into larger ones comparable to
699
modern continental blocks in size. Relatively older crusts were preserved in continental
700
interiors, whereas younger crusts were accreted along continental peripheries. The direct
701
accretion of intra-oceanic island arc crusts around continental peripheries became more
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important through time for net continental growth.
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heterogeneity in age structure of large continental blocks, and consequently the
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preservation bias of older crusts.
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This created a remarkable
The total amount of continents reached the maximum around 1.0 Ga, whereas it started
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to decrease after 1.0 Ga. This appears consistent with on-going phenomena along
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modern active arc-trench system with dominant tectonic erosion and/or arc subduction.
708
The present study suggests the subduction of a huge amount of granitic crusts into the
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mantle through time since the Archean, thus require re-consideration of the mantle
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composition and heterogeneity.
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Acknowledgements. Constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers were
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helpful for improving this manuscript.
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(Tokyo Inst. Tech.) for their helpful comments and discussions, and J. Dohm (U.
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Tokyo) and H. Asanuma (Tokyo Inst. Tech.) for help in rock sampling in field. This
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work was supported by Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI
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Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant Nos. 23224012, 26106002, and 26106005)
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from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Technology, and Culture.
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We thank Y. Sawaki, Y. Ueno, and S. Azuma
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Appendix A. Supplementary Material
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The following tables are the supplementary material related to this article:
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Table A.1 List of area, stratum, references, sample numbers and cumulative age
725
proportions of each sample for compilation.
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Table A.2 LA-ICP-MS analyzed data and calculated U-Pb ages of detrital zircons.
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Figure A.1. Testing of the compilation by repeated integration in different combination
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of data sources.
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Figure captions
1198
Figure 1: World geotectonic map, continental growth curves previously proposed, and
1199
idealized secular change in age structure of continental crust.
1200
(A) World geotectonic map compiled by Maruyama et al. (2007).
1201
areas for the Archean (2.5–4.0 Ga) crusts with respect to younger ones.
1202
(B)Representative continental growth curves (Fyfe, 1978; McLennan and Taylor, 1982;
1203
Goodwin, 1986; Utsunomiya et al., 2007; Rino et al. 2008) for comparison. Note the
1204
shaded area between the cumulative curves by Utsunomiya et al. (2007) and Rino et al.
1205
(2008), which represents the difference between the remaining crust mass in map view
1206
and the crustal volume estimated from zircon abundance in river sands. This suggests
1207
the amount of sedimentary recycling of pre-existing continental crusts, particularly
1208
during the last one billion years. (C) Schematic diagram showing the reconstruction of
1209
ancient age structure of continental crust by extrapolating the same pattern from modern
1210
river sands into the Proterozoic or Archean time without assuming any recycling in the
1211
past; however, such an extreme case never occurred in the real history.
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Note the small total
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1213
Figure 2: Age intervals and localities of zircon-bearing sandstone samples in the present
1214
data compilation. Samples are divided into 6 distinct age bins; i.e., ca. 2.9, 2.6 Ga
1215
(Archean), ca. 2.3, 1.0,
1216
Data sources are as follows: (A) ca. 2.9 Ga sandstones (1, 2–Sircombe et al., 2001; 3–
1217
Mishima et al., 2012; 4–Dodson et al., 1988); 5–Crowly et al., 2005; 6–Pidgeon et al.,
1218
2010; 7–this study. (B) ca. 2.6 Ga (1–Sawada et al., 2016; 2–Krapez et al., 2000;
0.6 Ga (Proterozoic), and 0 Ga (Phanerozoic).
54
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3–Machado et al., 1996; 4–Bohm et al., 2003; 5–Hokada et al., 2013; 6–this study). (C)
1220
ca. 2.3 Ga (1–Sawada et al., submitted; 2–Valini et al., 2006; 3–Mapeo et al., 2006;
1221
4–Kozhevnikov et al., 2010; 5–Li et al., 2008; 6 and 7–this study). (D) ca. 1.0 Ga
1222
(1–Bingen et al., 2011; 2–Dhuime et al., 2007; 3–Griffin et al., 2006; 4–Kirkland et al.,
1223
2008; 5–Li et al., 2007; 6–Rainbird et al., 1998; 7–Abati et al., 2010; 8–Malone et al.,
1224
2008; 9–Timmoos et al., 2005). (E) ca. 0.6 Ga (1– Gehrels et al., 2011); 2–Cawood and
1225
Nemchin, 2001; 3–Wang et al., 2010; 4– Darby and Gehrels, 2006; 5–Shu et al., 2011;
1226
6–Van Schmus et al., 2003; 7–Cawood et al., 2003; 8–Drost et al., 2011; 9–Linnemann
1227
et al., 2011). (F) ca. 0 Ga (Rino et al., 2008; river sands from sixteen major river
1228
mouths).
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Figure 3: The stratigraphic columns showing the levels of the 4 sandstone samples from
1231
the Archean–Proterozoic crusts in the Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa, Pilbara craton
1232
in western Australia, and the Wyoming craton in North America, for which detrital
1233
zircon U-Pb age were dated in this study. The levels of major unconformities are after
1234
Karlstrom et al. (1983) and Hokada et al. (2013).
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Figure 4: Age spectra and cumulative age frequency distribution of analyzed detrital
1237
zircons of the 4 sandstone samples from the Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa (PP78),
1238
Pilbara craton in western Australia (RM246 and TC255), and the Wyoming craton in
1239
North America (WY3). Age spectra of analyzed sandstones are shown in frequency
1240
distribution (green lines) and cumulative curves (red lines).
55
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1241 Figure 5: Comparison in cumulative curves of averaged detrital zircon age spectra for 6
1243
distinct time bins, i.e. ca. 2.9, 2.6 Ga (Archean), ca. 2.3, 1.0, 0.6 Ga (Proterozoic), and 0
1244
Ga (Phanerozoic) (see main text for original references).
1245
Vertical axis show age structure of continents in the form of cumulative age frequency
1246
distribution with taking 100 % on a continental volume at each period. (A) cumulative
1247
curves of raw data of averaged age spectra; (B) cumulative lines fitted for polygonal line
1248
function with original curves of age structure.
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1249
Figure 6: Patterns of possible cumulative curves (fitted cumulative lines) and
1251
interpretations in terms of net growth (production minus destruction) of continental
1252
crusts and their preservation bias.
1253
(A) When crust production is constant without destruction, the cumulative line changes
1254
its slope toward gentle, and the age span becomes wider along time (from t0 to t2). (B)
1255
Three options (1 to 3) may occur according to a balance between the production and
1256
destruction of continental crust; i.e., (1) production exceeding destruction, (2) balanced,
1257
and (3) destruction exceeds production. The mutual distance (age) between lines and
1258
their slopes are different among the three options. (C) Six options (1 to 6) may occur
1259
according to the production/destruction balance and also to preservation bias. The 2.9,
1260
2.6, and 2.3 Ga cumulative curves correspond to the option 2, whereas those of 1.0, 0.6
1261
and 0 Ga to the option 6.
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Figure 7: Estimated growth history of continents after 3.0 Ga, on the basis of the present
1264
compilation of detrital zircon age spectra of sandstones in 6 time bins and their
1265
interpretation.
1266
Note that the main trend in continental growth with rapid increase during ca. 2.0–1.0 Ga
1267
and sharp decrease after 1.0 Ga. The first large continent (Nuna/Columbia) appeared as
1268
soon as the main increase started, whereas the onset of modern-style cold subduction
1269
terminated the unidirectional continental growth, instead, the decrease of total
1270
continental mass.
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Figure 8: Schematic models of continental growth and island arc accretion since the
1273
Hadean in map view and in profile, and the corresponding world map.
1274
(A) During ca. 4.4–3.2 Ga, numerous island arcs formed during this time interval (right
1275
map) and accretion/subduction of island arcs occurred frequently. In the case of parallel
1276
collision of two island arcs (left), they easily amalgamated to each other and grew into
1277
minor land masses (arc accretion). In contrast, in the case of perpendicular collision of
1278
one arc to the other, the crust of the colliding arc likely subducted smoothly into the
1279
mantle (arc subduction; middle). Moreover, the subduction erosion also occurred to
1280
destruct pre-existing arc crusts. Consequently the preservation potential of the
1281
continental crust was very small.
1282
arcs (left) emerged as embryonic continents, which were larger than individual island
1283
arcs but smaller than that of modern continents without having significant amount of
1284
older crust (right).
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(B) During ca. 3.2–1.8 Ga, some collided composite
Tectonic recycling occurred along active continental margins (left, 57
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1285
middle) to suppress the net growth of continental crusts.
1286
plural embryonic continents amalgamated to build larger continents comparable to
1287
modern ones (right). Pre-existing crusts in the interiors were protected from the
1288
subduction-related tectonism along the active margins (left, middle), thus the
1289
preferential preservation of older crusts started (left, middle). For example, around ca.
1290
1.8–1.7 Ga the first supercontinent Nuna/Columbia developed. On the other hand, the
1291
accretion of island arcs along the peripheries were effective to increase the total mass of
1292
continental crusts.
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(C) During ca. 1.8–1.0 Ga,
1293 1294
Figure 9:
1295
view with respect to the cumulative curves of detrital zircon ages from 6 time bins and
1296
to assumed mantle potential temperature.
1297
(A) World map with continental crusts in three time intervals; i.e., 4.5–3.2 Ga, 3.2–1.8
1298
Ga, and 1.8–1.0 Ga (simplified from Fig. 8).
1299
continents (Fig. 7).
1300
(Komiya, 2004; Herzberg et al., 2010). Note that the mode change in continental entity
1301
through time occurred in accordance with the general cooling trend of the planet, and
1302
this is reflected in detrital zircon age patterns.
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(B) A speculative growth history of
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(C) Assumed secular change in potential mantle temperature
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Schematic images showing the secular change in continental growth in map
1304
Figure 10: Speculative diagram showing the secular change in total production of
1305
continental crust (light blue), in total subduction of continental crust into the mantle
1306
(light purple), and the resultant growth pattern of continents (orange) through time. 58
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The production/subduction of old continental crusts, older than the Mesoproterozoic,
1308
was huge in magnitude with respect to that in the Phanerzooic. This suggests the burial
1309
of great amount of granitic crustal material into the mantle in the earlier half of the
1310
Earth’s history.
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Tables
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Table 1 Fitting for polygonal line function and continental average cycle calculated
1316
from the result of fitting.
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59
ACCEPTED Table 1 Fitting for polygonal line function and continental average cycle calculated from the result of fitting. Age T[Ma] 2900 2600 2300 100 600 0 767
748 1287 1938 2869
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678
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Cycle = X-T [Myr.]
3578 3367 3048 2287 2538 2869
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X [Ma]
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A. ca. 4.4-3.2 Ga arc subduction
parallel collision
perpendicular collision
A
A
B
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very small preservation B A
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B
B
A
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arc accretion
oceanic island arcs
B. ca. 3.2-1.8 Ga
A
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embryonic continent (composite arc) small preservation A
B
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B
C. ca. 1.8-1.0 Ga
embryonic continents
preserved old crust
stable large continent
large preservation A
A
B
B
arc accretion
stable large continents
5000 km
subduction orogen
trench mid oceanic ridge
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S1674-9871(16)30208-0
DOI:
10.1016/j.gsf.2016.11.010
Reference:
GSF 515
To appear in:
Geoscience Frontiers
Received Date: 29 February 2016 Revised Date:
9 November 2016
Accepted Date: 25 November 2016
Please cite this article as: Sawada, H., Isozaki, Y., Sakata, S., Hirata, T., Maruyama, S., Secular change in lifetime of granitic crust and the continental growth: a new view from detrital zircon ages of sandstones, Geoscience Frontiers (2017), doi: 10.1016/j.gsf.2016.11.010. This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Secular change in lifetime of granitic crust
3
and the continental growth:
4
a new view from detrital zircon ages of sandstones
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Hikaru Sawada
7
Maruyama d
a,*
, Yukio Isozakia, Shuhei Sakatab, Takafumi Hirata c, Shigenori
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Department of General System Studies, the University of Tokyo
10
b
Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo Institute of Technology
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c
Department of Chemistry, Gakushuin University
12
d
Geochemical Research Center, the University of Tokyo
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* Corresponding author: [email protected] (H. Sawada).
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20 21 22 23
Highlights Detrital zircon U-Pb dating for Archean–Proterozoic sandstones from Australia, N. America, and Africa.
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Zircon age compilation of 2.9, 2.6, 2.3, 1.0 and 0.6 Ga sandstones revealed history of continental growth.
Rapid production/recycle of continental crusts in the Neoarchean–Paleoproterozoic.
25
Net growth of continents occurred after 2.0 Ga, whereas net decrease after 1.0 Ga.
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Abstract
28
U-Pb ages of detrital zircons were newly dated for 4 Archean sandstones from the Pilbara
29
craton in Australia, Wyoming craton in North America, and Kaapvaal craton in Africa.
30
By using the present results with previously published data, we compiled the age spectra
31
of detrital zircons for 2.9, 2.6, 2.3, 1.0, and 0.6 Ga sandstones and modern river sands in
32
order to document the secular change in age structure of continental crusts through time.
33
The results demonstrated the following episodes in the history of continental crust: (1)
34
low growth rate of the continents due to the short cycle in production/destruction of
35
granitic crust during the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic (2.9–2.3 Ga), (2) net increase in
36
volume of the continents during Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic (2.3–1.0 Ga), and (3) net
37
decrease in volume of the continents during the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic (after
38
1.0 Ga). In the Archean and Paleoproterozoic, the embryonic continents were smaller
39
than the modern continents, probably owing to the relatively rapid production and
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destruction of continental crust. This is indeed reflected in the heterogeneous crustal age
41
structure of modern continents that usually have relatively small amount of Archean
42
crusts with respect to the post-Archean ones. During the Mesoproterozoic, plural
43
continents amalgamated into larger ones comparable to modern continental blocks in size.
44
Relatively older crusts were preserved in continental interiors, whereas younger crusts
45
were accreted along continental peripheries. In addition to continental arc magmatism,
46
the direct accretion of intra-oceanic island arc around continental peripheries also became
47
important for net continental growth. Since 1.0 Ga, total volume of continents has
48
decreased, and this appears consistent with on-going phenomena along modern active
49
arc-trench system with dominant tectonic erosion and/or arc subduction. Subduction of
50
a huge amount of granitic crusts into the mantle through time is suggested, and this
51
requires re-consideration of the mantle composition and heterogeneity.
52
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Keywords: detrital zircon, U-Pb age, continental growth, subduction erosion,
54
preservation bias
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1. Introduction The vast occurrence of granitic continental crust, as well as the existence of life, is
58
one of the unique features of the Earth, in remarkable contrast to other planets of the solar
59
system. Nevertheless, the origin and history of continent has been the main topic of
60
discussion for years but not yet fully understood. Fig. 1A shows geotectonic map of all
61
extant continents and age proportion of continental crusts, from the Archean to Cenozoic.
62
Conventionally, the gradual accumulation of continental (sial) crust through time was
63
assumed on the basis of its relatively large buoyancy with respect to oceanic (sima) crust
64
(e.g., Hurley and Rand, 1969). In contrast, considerations on overall thermal history of
65
the Earth drove some researchers to imagine the vigorous formation of continental crust
66
particularly during the earliest history of the planet; the total volume of early continents
67
exceeded even over that of the present continents (e.g., Fyfe, 1978; Armstrong and
68
Harmon, 1981; Fig. 1B).
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During the 1980s–1990s, geochemical analyses provided other lines of evidence to
70
assume the relatively steady-state growth of total continental volume (e.g., McLennan
71
and Taylor, 1982; McCulloch and Bennett, 1994; Fig. 1B). In addition, anatomy of major
72
continents with distinct age composition became much clearer than before, particularly in
73
North America, by detailed field mapping and geochronological studies (e.g., Hoffman,
74
1988; Bowring et al., 1998). The initiation/operation of plate tectonics in the early Earth
75
was practically proved by concrete geological lines of evidence of oceanic
76
subduction-related rock units (accretionary complex and arc garnitoid) and horizontal
77
layer-parallel shortening (duplex) structures (Sleep and Windley. 1982; Maruyama et al.,
78
1991; Komiya et al. 1999, 2015; Komiya and Maruyama, 2011; Kusky et al., 2013). They
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explained that plate tectonics started during the early Archean or even in the Hadean.
80
Strongly opposing this view, some researchers insist for no operation of plate tectonics
81
during the Archean; by estimating relatively low density with thicker basaltic crust, ca. 4
82
times thicker than the present, for example, Davies (1992, 1995) argued that Archean
83
oceanic crust was thus too buoyant to be subducted. Some geophysical models also insist
84
that plate subduction was highly limited with assumed warm Archean mantle, much
85
warmer than today because of highly depleted peridotitic mantle lithosphere (e.g., O’Neil
86
et al., 2007; Korenaga, 2008). These claims can be reasonably refuted by considering
87
slab melting and mineral-phase change in deeper mantle (Komiya et al., 2004). Recently,
88
more actualistic geophysical models with respect to mineral physics (e.g., Ogawa, 2007,
89
2014; van Hunen et al., 2008; Sizova et al., 2010; Fischer et al., 2016) suggested that a
90
certain kind of plate subduction, not necessarily the same as modern one, has operated
91
during the Archean, and probably started much earlier already in the Hadean.
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In the 1990s–2000s, a totally new input of information was given by the introduction
93
of detrital zircon chronology (e.g. Gehrels and Dickinson, 1995; Gehrels et al., 1995).
94
Detrital zircons from the Archean Narryer complex (Yilgarn Craton, W. Australia)
95
positively suggested that the production of felsic continental crust has started already in
96
the mid-Hadean (Mojzsis et al., 2001; Harrison et al., 2005, 2008; Ushikubo et al., 2008;
97
Carley et al., 2015). This notion is contradictory with the conventional view on the
98
Hadean crust (e,g, McLennan and Taylor, 1982; McCulloch and Bennett, 1994), as many
99
researchers still considered that ancient crusts were originally komatiitic/basaltic without
100
any granitoid produced by arc magmatism (Griffin et al., 2014; Nebel et al., 2014;
101
Reimenik et al., 2014; Kamber, 2015; Gaschnig et al., 2016).
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On the other hand, Rino et al. (2004, 2008) analyzed age spectra of detrital zircons in
103
river sands from extant modern continents, in particular, U-Pb age spectra of detrital
104
zircons of deltaic river sands from the Mississippi River, and compared the results with
105
the surface crustal age distribution of North American Craton with lesser Precambrian
106
sedimentary covers. Consequently they demonstrated that the river sand composition
107
faithfully reflect the crustal composition of the provenance, regardless of orogenic
108
disturbance by the Rocky mountains and/or terrigenous noise by the Quaternary
109
glacier-interglacial cycles. This result confirmed that crustal composition of hinterland is
110
by and large reflected in river sands deposited at lower streams of a major river with large
111
drainage system, when the crustal basement is extensively exposed. Essentially similar
112
results were obtained also from other continents (Rino et al., 2008). Although almost
113
parallel to each other, the narrow gap space (shaded area in Fig. 1B) existing between the
114
two cumulative curves by Ustunomiya et al. (2007) and Rino et al. (2008) suggests that
115
the corresponding amount of continental crusts has disappeared by sedimentary recycling,
116
particularly during the last one billion years. They indicate that continental crusts older
117
than 2.3 Ga (i.e. the first half of the Earth history) merely occupy no more than 20% of all
118
continents, and those of > 3 Ga are quite rare (Fig. 1B), in good agreement with actual age
119
proportion of crust on extant continents (Fig. 1A).
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By assuming that oceanic subduction has produced granitic crust continuously since
121
the Archean, a huge amount of buoyant continental crust is expected to have formed and
122
accumulated on the planet’s surface according to the elapsed time. Nonetheless, this is
123
not the case that we observe on extant continents, as mentioned above. This
124
disagreement between the long elapsed time and smaller remnants of older crusts can be 6
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125
reasonably explained only when older continental crusts disappeared from the surface
126
secondarily. As observed in modern Earth, granitic continental crust is formed under the
128
operation of plate tectonics, in particular, along active subduction zones; on the other
129
hand, plate subduction can cause significant volume reduction of continental crust
130
through subduction erosion, sediment subduction, and island arc subduction (von Huene
131
and Lallemand, 1990; Scholl and von Huene, 2007; 2009; Clift et al., 2009; Yamamoto et
132
al., 2009; Isozaki et al., 2010). Recent estimates on the global volume of global crust
133
generation and destruction along modern subduction zones show that the rate of
134
destruction equals or even exceeds the production (e.g. Clift et al., 2009; Stern, 2011).
135
Recent seismic tomography data also suggest the occurrence of large amounts of recycled
136
silicic crustal material in the mantle (Kawai et al., 2009, 2013; Ichikawa et al., 2013;
137
Garnero et al., 2016).
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Recent compilations of large dataset (ten thousands of ages from multiple sources)
139
of detrital zircon ages, for minimizing local bias, recognized some peaks in zircon age
140
(Condie et al., 2009; Belousova et al., 2010; Voice et al.. 2011; Roberts and Spencer,
141
2015). These distinct peaks apparently correspond to the timings of supercontinent
142
amalgamation during the Proterozoic and Phanerozoic (Rino et al., 2004, 2008; Condie et
143
al., 2009). Some researchers proposed that episodic production of juvenile crust caused
144
by mantle plumes related to break-up of supercontinents (Rino et al., 2004; Condie et al.,
145
2009). Other researchers pointed out that the continental crust would obtain preservation
146
potential through shielding continental inboard from subduction zones during
147
supercontinental periods (Hawkesworth et al., 2009; Roberts, 2012). These discussions
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highlighted contrasting views on the process of construction of continental crust, i.e.
149
episodic production versus preservation potential. To date, diverse models have been
150
proposed for the secular change in total continental volume through time (Fig. 1B);
151
however, it is too crude to interpret the accumulated age spectra without checking
152
depositional ages and/or settings of host sandstones because of significant destruction of
153
older continental crust through time. As such a major obstacle exists in reconstructing
154
precise volume of ancient continents, the secular change in age structure of continental
155
crust through time has not yet been clearly demonstrated.
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Age structure is one of the fundamental parameters for population dynamics
157
(Veizer and Jansen, 1985). Without any recycling at all, an accumulated age curve of
158
modern river sand can easily lead/reconstruct those for any given time in the past (Fig.
159
1C); however, we must admit that such an ideal case is extremely rare. The evolution of
160
continental crusts indeed occurred not in steady-state but with volatile changes of
161
production and destruction through the Earth’s history.
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In this study, first we analyzed age spectra of detrital zircons from 4 Archean
163
sandstones collected from above-unconformity horizons in Australia, North America,
164
and Africa. On the basis of the present data, together with previously reported data, we
165
compiled the age structure of detrital zircons for several time-bins subdivided by
166
depositional ages of host sandstones. This compilation led us detect a contrasting aspect
167
in age spectra of detrital zircons between pre-2.3 Ga interval and post-1.0 Ga one, which
168
likely suggests that a major change in age structure of continents has occurred sometime
169
in mid-Precambrian time. This article discusses the secular change in age structure of the
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170
continents through time in order to document a general trend of continental crust
171
formation in a water-lain terrestrial planet like the Earth.
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2. Age spectra of detrital zircons of supra-unconformity
174
Archean sandstones
175
We collected Archean sandstone samples on purpose mostly from horizons immediately
176
above major unconformities of global extent. We assume well matured sandstones may
177
guarantee long-distance transportation through the drainage, and above-unconformity
178
sandstone may faithfully represent an average age structure of crustal basement of a
179
craton/continent with the greatest exposure.
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2.1. Samples
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We collected Archean sandstones from the three representative Archena cratons; i.e.,
183
the Pilbara craton in Western Australia, Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa, and
184
Wyoming craton in North America (Fig. 3). The Pilbara Craton has extensive Archean
185
(ca. 3.7–2.9 Ga) granitoid-greenstone belts (Bickle, 1980; Van Kranendonk et al., 2007),
186
of which basement is unconformably overlain by a 2.8–2.2 Ga volcano-sedimentary unit
187
called the Mt. Bruce Supergroup (Fig. 3; Nelson et al., 1999). We collected two sandstone
188
samples; i.e., one from the 2.6 Ga Jeerina Formation in the Fortescue Group at WGS84
189
GPS coordinate (–22.13283, 119.00139) and the other from ca. 2.3 Ga Turee Creek
190
Group at (–22.63582, 116.32702).
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The Kaapvaal Craton also has Archean (ca. 3.7–2.7 Ga) granite-greenstone belts, of
192
which basement is unconformably covered by the ca. 2.9–2.2 Ga sedimentary sequences
193
called the Pongola Supergroup (Nelson et al., 1999; Cornell et al., 1996). This unit is
194
well-known for its glacial tillite that suggests the earliest icehouse period in the Earth’s
195
history, and the unconformities above and below likely marked craton-wide erosion and
196
the resultant extensive exposure of crustal basement rocks in the hinterland. We collected
197
one sample of quartzitic sandstone from the Mozaan Group at WGS84 GPS coordinate
198
(–27.45935, 31.27200).
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The Wyoming Craton is one of the Archean continental blocks in the Laurentia shield
200
(Condie, 1969; Hoffman, 1989). The granitic rocks of the Wyoming Craton range in age
201
over one billion years from 3.5 to 2.5 Ga (Foster et al., 2006; Chamberlain et al., 2003).
202
Along the southern margin of the craton, the Paleoproterozoic (ca. 2.5–2.0 Ga)
203
sedimentary unit called the Snowy Pass Supergroup develops, unconformably overlying
204
the Archean basement (Karlstrom et al., 1983). The sedimentary setting of the Snowy
205
Pass Supergroup has been explained to have formed in a rift basin along a passive
206
continental margin (Karlstrom et al., 1983; Houston et al., 1992). We collected one
207
well-matured orthoquartzite sample (WY3) from the Medicine Peak Quartzite of the
208
Snowy Pass Supergroup at GPS coordinate (41.34092, –106.30357).
209
interpreted to have deposited on ca. 2.3 Ga subtidal delta plain (Karlstrom et al., 1983;
210
Houston et al., 1992).
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This unit is
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212
2.2. Dating procedures Detrital zircons were mounted in acrylic resin, and polished until the midsections of
214
the zircons were exposed. Cathodoluminescence images were obtained using a Gatan
215
Chroma CL2 to select spots of analysis. U-Pb age dating of the zircons were carried out
216
using a Nu AttoM high-resolution ICP-MS (Nu instruments, UK) coupled with a
217
NWR-193 laser-ablation system (ESI, USA), which uses a 193 nm ArF excimer laser.
218
The laser ablation was made under the helium ambient gas within the micro cell of < 1
219
mL (Two Volume Cell I). The aerosol of the ablated sample and helium gas were mixed
220
with argon gas downstream of the cell. The helium minimizes redeposition of the sample
221
ejecta or condensates while argon provides efficient sample transport to the ICP-MS
222
(Eggins et al., 1998; Günther and Heinrich, 1999; Jackson et al., 2004). The
223
signal-smoothing device was applied to minimize the introduction of large aerosols into
224
the ICP (Tunheng and Hirata, 2004).
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The ICP-MS operational settings were optimized using the Pb and U signals
226
obtained with continuous laser ablation on 91,500 zircon standard (Wiedenbeck et al.,
227
1995, 2004) and NIST SRM 610 to provide maximum sensitivity while maintaining low
228
oxide formation (ThO/Th < 1%). An Hg-trap device with an activated charcoal filter
229
was applied to the Ar make-up gas before mixing with He carrier gas (Hirata et al.,
230
2005).
231
of 204Pb were estimated by using the measured 202Hg/204(Hg+Pb) ratio and isotopic ratio
232
of natural Hg (202Hg/204Hg = 29.863/6.865=4.369; de Laeter et al., 2003). When over
233
0.001 of apparent 204Pb/206Pb data for unknown zircon sample was obtained, data of the
234
sample were rejected because it is considerable as the contamination of inclusions.
235
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Isotopes of 202Hg, 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, 232Th, and 238U were monitored. Intensity
Background intensities were interpolated using an averaged value among two 11
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background data acquired before and after each unknown sample groups. The mean and
237
standard error of the measured ratios among each eight 91500 and/or Plešovice zircon
238
standard data bracketing unknown sample groups were calculated, and the mean and
239
standard error measured for 91500 and/or Plešovice zircon standard were applied for
240
age estimate and uncertainty propagation. Analytical uncertainties join the
241
reproducibility of the zircon standard analysis (91500 and/or Plešovice, Sláma et al.,
242
2008) with counting statistics.
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243
2.3. Results and Age spectra
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All analytical results of detrital zircon U-Pb age dating by using a LA-ICPMS are
246
summarized in Table A1 in appendix. Figure 4 shows age spectra and cumulative age
247
frequency distribution of the analyzed detrital zircons.
All zircons from the four analyzed samples have U-Pb ages younger than 3.5 Ga,
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i.e., Paleoarchean.
250
from the Pilbara and Wyoming cratons (Samples RM246 and WY3) share the same age
251
cluster of ca. 2.7–2.8 Ga zircons (Fig. 4). The 2.9 Ga sandstone from the Kaapvaal
252
craton (Sample PP78) solely has a major peak of ca. 3.1 Ga zircon age, whereas the
253
former two merely have minor peak of this age.
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It is clear that the three samples of ca. 2.3 and 2.6 Ga sandstones
The 2.8–2.7 Ga cluster of detrital zircons is comparable with those reported not only
255
from various late Archean to Paleoproterozoic sandstones (e.g. Condie et al., 2009; Voice
256
et al., 2010) but also from modern river sand (Rino et al., 2004, 2008). On the other hand,
257
the 3.1 Ga peak has not been clearly shown in the previous compilation as the 2.8–2.7 Ga
258
one. This difference in age spectrum of detrital zircons likely reflects the secular change 12
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259
in age structure of continents vigorous tectono-magmatism around 2.8–2.7 Ga, which
260
will be discussed in detail later.
263 264
3. Data compilation
In this chapter, we show detail of compilation of previously reported data together with the above our analytical results.
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3.1. Conditions for a compilation
For the compilation of U-Pb ages of detrital zircons, we focus on clastic rocks
268
deposited specifically in extensional tectonic settings. In such settings, steep mountain
269
ranges and other geographical protruding are generally minor and sediment receives
270
matured terrigenous clastics from the wide range of provenances. Age frequency
271
distribution of detrital zircons in such sedimentary rocks likely reflects the rock
272
compositions in provenances in a given time internal. In contrast, clastic rocks
273
accumulated along compressional tectonic settings, such as accretionary complex and
274
forearc basin, would have large bias owing to steep mountain ranges, active volcanic
275
chain, and exposed granitic batholith (e.g. Cawood et al., 2012; Aoki et al., 2014). In this
276
regard, the latter group is unsuitable for the purpose of this study. All of the 16 rivers in
277
Rino et al. (2008), compiling U-Pb ages of detrital zircons in modern river mouths, run on
278
passive continental margins (Fig. 2).
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In order to collect world wide data for the compilation, this study focuses on periods
280
at ca. 2.9, 2.6, 2.3, 1.0, and 0.6 Ga which relatively abundant in sedimentary rocks. Since 13
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ca. 3 Ga, large unconformities on continental free-board emerged, and mature
282
sedimentary rocks such as quartz arenite have been deposited on the unconformities
283
(Ronov, 1964; Rogers, 1996; Veizer and Mackenzie, 2003). Note that this compilation
284
of detrital zircon ages includes only crustal ages of continental blocks and does not
285
include the fragmental continental crust, such as oceanic island arcs. Thus, this study
286
estimates “age structure of the continents”, not “age structure of the all continental crust
287
on the Earth’s surface”.
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To reduce local bias, we selected one rock sample on each craton for the compilation
289
at 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga. For the compilation at 1.0 and 0.6 Ga, localities were selected to
290
cover the whole Earth. In case that more than two age frequency distributions have been
291
reported from several sequences in a locality, this study chooses one of them according to
292
maturity of the sediments and/or width of age spectrum. Nonetheless these criteria may
293
be still flawed to recover precise age structures of continents in the past, they are
294
important to obtain global trend of age structure of continents with bias as few as
295
possible.
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3.2. Integration of age data set
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This study compiled our analytical data described above with previously reported
299
data shown in Fig. 2. We selected data with the following criteria; i.e. ages (1) dated by
300
in-situ analysis with LA-ICP-MS, SIMS, and SHRIMP, (2) of igneous origin guaranteed
301
by oscillatory zoning (no metamorphic zircons), and (3) with concordance and/or
302
discordance less than 10% in U-Pb isotopic systematics.
14
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Although source rocks of individual detrital zircons cannot be identified by U-Pb
304
dating and other geochemical analysis, we suppose that all detrital zircons have been
305
derived from granitoids composing continental crust. All localities, references of data
306
sources and age frequency distributions of each data are summarized in Table A1 in
307
Appendix. By adding all these age data, we obtain averaged age spectra of detrital
308
zircons for five periods (2.9. 2.5, 2.3, 1.0, and 0.6 Ga) individually. Fig. 5A illustrates the
309
averaged age spectra for these 5 periods together with that of modern river sands (Rino et
310
al., 2008) in the form of cumulative curves normalized to 100%. Note that the vertical
311
axis of Fig. 5A represents not the volume of the continental crust but the percentage in
312
age.
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By compiling detrital zircon ages from modern river sands, Rino et al. (2008)
314
integrated individual age frequency distributions after the adjustment according to area of
315
each river’s drainage basin. In this study, in contrast, age frequency distributions from
316
each rock sample are regarded as having the same weight as a whole, because it is
317
unfeasible to estimate precise areas of ancient provenance. As to checking possible local
318
bias, we examined alternatively the integration in different combination of data sources,
319
and the results confirmed that the synthesized age spectra show more or less the same
320
pattern regardless of combination (Fig. A1 in Appendix).
322 323 324
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3.3. Fitting of the result of compilation by linear function In order to discuss more detailed secular changes in age structure of continent, each curve is fitted to polygonal line function. The function is represented by
15
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− where t means an age (i.e. time, in Ma), T is depositional age of compiled rock samples
326
(in Ma), and X represents an age of the bending point in this function (in Ma). Parameter
327
X, a fitting parameter for a curve, is computed through a least-square method.
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Value of X – T [M.yr.] means a time span for once-produced continental crust being
329
vanished by recycling processes at each period. In this paper, this time span is referred as
330
“continental average cycle”. This word does not mean the span in which all continental
331
crust is completely disappeared or replaced, but something like an average lifetime. The
332
fitting lines are shown in Fig. 5B. The detailed results of fitting are given in Table 1. As
333
values of asymptotic standard error of the fitting parameter X are between 1 and 2 Ma,
334
these lines are regarded well fitted.
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336
4. Discussion
337
4.1. Major change in preservation of continental crust between 2.3 and 1.0 Ga
338
The results of compilation shown in Fig. 5 clearly demonstrate several interesting
340
aspects of age composition of Precambrian continents. First, the three cumulative curves
341
for age structure of continents at 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga (3 lines in reddish colored in Fig. 5)
342
apparently run nearly parallel to each other. This observation suggests that the age
343
structure of continents was rather constant during the late Archean to early Proterozoic (at
344
least between 2.9 and 2.3 Ga). This also indicates that the averaged residence time of
345
crusts has been almost constant between 2.9–2.3 Ga probably because a good balance
346
was kept between the production and destruction of continental crusts. In other words,
347
the pre-2.3 Ga continents have comprised solely young crusts no older than 800 million
348
years old.
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Second, post-1.0 Ga crusts had relatively wider age range, over 1300 m.y., with
350
respect to the pre-2.3 Ga crusts (Fig. 5B). In particular, the modern river sands have the
351
widest age range of detrital zircon, which reaches ca. 2900 million years, i.e., 3-4 times
352
longer than those of pre-2.3 Ga sandstones.
353
continental crusts reaches 4000 million years (Bowring et al., 1988).
Moreover, the age range of extant
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Third, the cumulative curves of 2.9, 2.6, and 2.3 Ga are obviously steeper than those of
355
1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga (Fig. 5B). These observations indicate that the pre-2.3 Ga balance
356
between the production and destruction of continental crusts has been lost by the
357
Neoproterozoic, and that the post-1.0 Ga continental crusts tend to be preserved more
358
efficiently than before, in a form of crusts with wider age ranges, such as North 17
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359
America. The present analysis clarified that a major change in the preservation mode of
360
continental crusts has occurred sometime between 2.3 and 1.0 Ga, probably suggesting a
361
significant shift in tectonic regime during the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic.
362
following sections, we will discuss more details of the growth pattern of continents
363
though time.
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4.2. Net growth and preservation bias of continents
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In the
Crude “continental crust production” is clearly different from the “growth of
367
continents”. The former represents the total amount of produced continental crust that
368
simply increases/accumulates along time, regardless of secondary disappearance.
369
rate of the former has been controlled essentially by the long-term change in mantle
370
temperature, via mantle convection.
371
difference in volume between pre-existing continents and those newly added by arc
372
magmatism and/or secondarily disappeared. Although not much precise, it is easier to
373
estimate the modern rate of continental growth on the basis of direct observations on
374
magmatism and tectonics; however, that of the past appears difficult in general without
375
direct measurements.
376
growth by checking detrital zircon records in ancient terrigenous clastics.
The
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In contrast, the latter corresponds to the final
Nonetheless, we can reconstruct the history of continental
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Age structure of a particular continent recorded its long-term history of the balance
378
between the production and destruction rates of continental crust.
379
regime, in general, continental crust is formed mostly by arc magmatism along
380
subduction zones, whereas pre-existing continental crust can be often erased by
381
subduction erosion/sediment subduction (Scholl and von Huene, 2007, 2009; Clift et al., 18
Under plate tectonic
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2009; Yamamoto et al., 2009; Stern, 2011). Without secondary disappearance of the
383
continental crusts, continental volume will increase monotonically as long as
384
subduction-related magmatism continues. In this case, the slope of cumulative curve of
385
crustal age changes simply according to the production rate by magmatism (Fig. 6A).
386
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On the other hand, in cases with both crustal production and destruction, the following two factors control the age structure of a continent, i.e., “net continental growth”
388
and “preservation bias” according to the heterogeneity in age of crustal rocks. “Net
389
growth” in a continent corresponds to the difference in volume between juvenile
390
continental crust newly formed by arc magmatism and the pre-existing crust secondarily
391
disappearing by subduction erosion. Consequently, the secular change in volume of
392
continental crust can have three options: (1) increase by over-production (Fig. 6B, left
393
column), (2) no change by balanced production and destruction (Fig. 6B, middle column),
394
and (3) decrease by over-erosion (Fig. 6B, right column).
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“Preservation bias” represents the degree of vulnerability for variously aged crust to
396
secondary disappearance in regard of spatial arrangement of crusts within a continent. For
397
modern continental blocks, relatively young continental crusts tend to be formed along
398
its peripheries. For example, the North American continent has relatively old continental
399
crusts in its interior (the Canadian shield) surrounded by younger orogenic fronts along
400
the continental peripheries (the Appalchian and Cordilleran belts; Fig. 1A). With such
401
an uneven distribution of crustal ages in a continent, younger continental crust may
402
easily suffer crustal recycling and reworking processes by active subduction related
403
tectonism, whereas older crust in the interior remain preferentially untouched. Thus
404
“preservation bias” has two end-member options, i.e. (1) with strong bias in spatial
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distribution of crustal ages, relatively older crusts are selectively preserved (Fig. 6C), and
406
(2) without bias, continental crusts of various ages are preserved or eroded out
407
proportionally (Fig. 6B). In general, larger continents tend to have strong bias mostly
408
owing to their longer history with multiple tectonics episodes.
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Given these two factors controlling age structure of a continent, Fig. 6B categorizes
410
possible patterns of continental growth. Fig. 6B illustrates three possible options with no
411
preservation bias. In the case of net increase in continental crust (Fig. 6B-1), the slope of
412
cumulative age gradually turns gentler in the same manner as Fig. 6A. The starting point
413
of the line at the base indicates the age of the oldest crust, and its position shift toward the
414
younger direction. In the case of no change in continental volume (Fig. 6B-2), the
415
production and destruction of continental crust balances to keep the line of accumulated
416
age in the same shape (slope) but with gradually shifted toward the younger direction. In
417
the case of net decrease (Fig. 6B-3), the continental crust disappears much faster than the
418
coeval production. Thus, the young continental crust dominates more, making the slopes
419
much steeper, and shifting the line as a whole toward the younger direction.
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When we take “preservation bias” into consideration, cases will be more diverse. Fig.
421
6C-4, -5, and -6 illustrates three options with strong preservation bias. In the case of net
422
increasing or no change in volume of a continent (Fig. 6C-4 and -5), secular change in age
423
structures is apparently the same as that of Fig. 6A. On the contrary, in the case of net
424
decrease (Fig. 6C-6), a proportion of old continental crust becomes relatively larger
425
through the selective elimination of younger crusts along continental margins. In this case,
426
slopes of accumulated lines become gentler, and the oldest age of crust shift toward the
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20
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427
older direction. Consequently, a unique pattern occurs with three lines (t0, t1 and t2)
428
crossing each other in the middle, as shown in Fig. 6C-6.
430
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4.3. Growth of continents since the late Archean
On the basis of the compilation of age spectra of detrital zircons from 2.9, 2.6, 1.0,
432
and 0.6 Ga sandstones together with that of modern river sands, we discuss the pattern
433
and change in the growth of continents since the Mesoarchean. On the left hand side of
434
Fig. 5, three cumulative curves for 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga continental crusts (reddish colored
435
lines) are running almost parallel to each other, and the widths of age variation are
436
relatively narrow. These correspond to the pattern shown in Fig. 6C-2, suggesting that
437
continents have been produced constantly but at the same time suffering severe
438
destruction during the mid-Archean to the early Proterozoic time. Consequently, the
439
total volume of continents remained constant or slightly increased (Fig. 7). Although
440
the occurrence of 2.9 to 2.3 Ga terrigenous sedimentary rocks has been used as evidence
441
for the extensive exposure of continental landmass(es) in the Archean to early
442
Proterozpoic (Ronov, 1964; Rogers, 1996), no data exist for any quantitative estimate of
443
total mass of continental crusts during the Archean and Proterozoic.
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431
The narrow age widths of the three Archean lines (Fig. 5) indicate that continental
445
crusts have not been effectively preserved during the Archean, instead they were
446
destructed rapidly in short periods. In other words, rigorous recycling operated for
447
granitic crusts, and most of the Archean continental crusts were likely subducted into the
448
mantle.
21
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In contrast, the slope of the 1.0 Ga cumulative curve (middle in Fig. 5) is gentler than
450
that of 2.3 Ga. This corresponds to the pattern shown in Fig. 6C-4 or -5, suggesting that
451
net continental growth has occurred during this period. Although destruction had affected
452
both younger and older continental crusts, the preservation potential of older crusts
453
became probably higher around 1.0 Ga. Considering ca. 1.8 Ga amalgamation of the
454
Nuna continent proposed on the basis of geological observations in Laurentia (Hoffman,
455
1988), we speculate that the turning point arrived around 1.8 Ga; the first large continent
456
appeared and the preservation bias of continental crusts increased after that (Fig. 7).
M AN U
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449
In short, the present compilations suggests some aspects of continental growth
458
which have not been recognized before; i.e., (1) constant or slight increase in continental
459
volume between ca. 2.9 and 2.3 Ga, (2) net growth of continental crust between ca. 2.3
460
and 1.0 Ga with drastic increase of crustal preservation around 1.8 Ga, (3) net decrease
461
after 1.0 Ga to the present, and (4) total volume of the continents reached maximum
462
during the Proterozoic, particularly between 2.3 Ga and 1.0 Ga.
464
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457
4.4. Post-1.0 Ga decrease of continental crust? As shown in Fig. 5, the slopes of 1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga cumulative curves are gentler
466
than those of 2.9, 2.6 and 2.3 Ga, and more interestingly, they become gentler along time.
467
This observation indicates that the preservation has become more common for older
468
crusts during the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic with respect to the Archean and early
469
Proterozoic, as discussed above.
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470
It is also noteworthy that these 3 lines cross each other in the middle (Fig. 5B), just
471
like the case of Fig. 6C-6. This simply indicates that younger crusts occur less abundantly 22
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
in provenance, but never that older crusts were newly added. As older crusts may
473
naturally decrease or remain the same in amount, these 3 lines should not cross in reality.
474
Instead, the apparent crossing suggests that the total volume of continental crusts may has
475
changed, in particular, has decreased along time after 1.0 Ga. In this regard, for avoiding
476
the mutual crossing of these lines, cumulative curves for 1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga continental
477
crusts need to be modified (Fig. 7). The height of the Proterozoic peak between 2.3–1.0
478
Ga is normalized on the basis of the vertical expansion of the 1.0 and 0.6 Ga cumulative
479
curves.
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472
On the basis of the above discussion on secular change, we tentatively place the
481
continental growth curve on about 50–80 % volume of the modern continents, as shown
482
in Fig. 7. The results shown in Fig. 7 suggest that at 1.0 Ga continents of nearly 150 %
483
volume of modern continents existed, and also at 0.6 Ga 130 %, respectively. The total
484
continental mass likely reached the maximum in the Earth’s history, ca. 150% of the
485
modern continents on the planet’s surface in volume between 2.3 and 1.0 Ga. On the other
486
hand, this diagram indeed suggests the gradual decrease in total continental mass during
487
the last 1 billion years. Such a notion of decreasing continental mass in the past has never
488
been discussed on the basis of solid geological data like the present zircon age spectra;
489
however, this appears indeed consistent with on-going phenomena along modern active
490
arc-trench systems with severe tectonics erosion and/or arc subduction rather than the
491
addition of juvenile crusts (Yamamoto et al., 2009).
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492
23
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493
4.5. Pre-3.0 Ga growth of continental crust The present compilation provided new clues to interpret the growth pattern of
495
continents after 3.0 Ga as discussed above; nonetheless, not much information were
496
available for the pre-3.0 Ga conditions. On the basis of previously published works,
497
here we summarize the current understanding of the Paleoarchean and Hadean
498
continental growth before 3.0 Ga.
The onset timing of oceanic plate subduction in the Earth’s history has been much
SC
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494
500
debated.
501
operation of plate subduction already in the Archean, at least during the Mesoarchean
502
(ca. 3 Ga) (Hoffman, 1989; Card, 1990; Kimura et al., 1993; Dirks and Jelsma, 1998;
503
White et al., 2003; Percival et al., 2006; Korsch et al., 2011; Zhai and Santosh, 2011).
504
Some researchers further suggest much earlier operation even in the Eoarhcean. The
505
most solid line of evidence is in the recognition of Eoarchean (3.9–3.8 Ga) accretionary
506
complexex in Greenland and Labrador, Canada (Komiya and Maruyama, 1991;
507
Maruyama et al., 1991; Komiya et al., 1999, 2015; Shimojo et al., 2016). By identifying
508
two critical features of oceanic suduction-related tectonics along active trench, i.e., a
509
unique
510
layer-parallel-shortening structure called duplex (Isozaki et al., 1990; Matsuda and
511
Isozaki, 1991; Isozaki 2014), they concluded that oceanic subduction of essentially the
512
same style as modern examples, therefore, plate tectonics has operated already in the
513
early Archean time.
association
called
ocean
plate
stratigraphy
(OPS)
and
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Conventional geological observations in the Archean cratons suggest the
514
In addition, the extensive occurrence of granitic crusts was suggested also by the
515
discovery of Hadean zircons because igneous zircon crystallizes most abundantly in 24
ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT
granitoids (Wilde et al., 2001; Yamamoto et al., this issue; Isozaki et al., this issue). Other
517
isotopic signatures of the Hadean zircons also positively suggest that the production of
518
zircon-bearing felsic continental crust has started by ca. 4.3 Ga (e.g. Mojzsis et al., 2001;
519
Harrison et al., 2005, 2008; Ushikubo et al., 2008).
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516
The main debate against the pre-3.0 Ga plate tectonics (e.g. Nebel et al., 2014; Kamber,
521
2015) has been based on the estimated thick Archean basaltic crust with extremely low
522
density with respect to mantle rocks (Davies, 1992, 1995), which was too buoyant to be
523
subducted. In addition, assumed warm Archean mantle was also regarded to suggest the
524
prohibition of oceanic subduction into deeper mantle (e.g., O’Neil et al., 2007; Korenaga,
525
2008). Nevertheless, slab melting and mineral-phase change in deeper mantle were
526
overlooked in these notions (Komiya et al., 2004), and the latest actualistic geophysical
527
models (e.g., Ogawa, 2007, 2014; van Hunen et al., 2008; Sizova et al., 2010; Fischer et
528
al., 2016) instead suggest the earlier operation of plate subduction already in the Eorchean,
529
and even in the Hadean.
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520
Petrological analysis indicated that the mantle temperature during this period was
531
about 100–200 ˚C warmer than today (Fig. 9A; Komiya, 2004; Herzberg et al., 2010),
532
which may have led a specific tectonic regime like chaotic subduction with small
533
oceanic plates (Yanagisawa and Yamagishi, 2005; Sizova et al., 2010; Ogawa, 2014;
534
Fischer et al., 2016). The putative chaotic subduction of numerous small oceanic plates
535
may explain the geological observations of narrow-shaped Archean crustal blocks,
536
which led some geologists imagine that Archean continental growth essentially has
537
occurred in multiple parallel collision of mid-oceanic island arcs (Fig. 8A; de Wit and
538
Hart, 1983; Hoffman, 1989; Santosh et al. 2009).
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530
25
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In contrast, perpendicular collision of an island arc to another one usually ends up in
540
smooth subduction of colliding arc with lesser contribution to crustal growth with
541
respect to parallel collision (Yamamoto et al., 2010; Santosh et al. 2009). As parallel
542
collision may occur less frequently in general, most of the Hadean-Eoarchean continental
543
crusts were likely subducted without leaving much traces on surface, and recycled into
544
the mantle.
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The early embryonic continents large enough to have continental free-board would
546
have formed through the multiple parallel collision/amalgamation of minor elongated
547
island arcs (Fig. 9 C and D). The dominant occurrence of Mesoarchean terrigenous clastic
548
rocks with extremely high maturity, e.g. quartz arenite (Ronov, 1964; Veizer and
549
Mackenzie, 2003), indicates the first appearance of relatively large continental entities
550
was ca. 3.2 Ga (Rogers, 1996; Rogers and Santosh, 2003).
552
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4.6. A brief summary of continental growth On the basis of the above discussion and the newly documented pattern change in
554
age structure of continental crusts, we summarize a brief history of continental growth
555
from the Hadean to the present by discriminating five distinct stages; i.e. (1) Stage 1
556
(4.5–4.4 Ga): formation of primordial crusts, (2) Stage 2 (4.4–3.2 Ga): production of
557
primitive continental crust mostly of oceanic island arc affinity, (3) Stage 3 (3.2–1.8 Ga):
558
emergence of small embryonic continents, (4) Stage 4 (1.8-1.0 Ga): development of
559
supercontinents, and (5) Stage 5 (1.0–0 Ga): operation of supercontinent cycle under
560
modern-style plate tectonics (Fig. 7).
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26
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561
4.6.1. Satge 1 (4.5–4.4 Ga):
562
magma ocean, primordial crust was likely formed (Kramers, 2007); however, it has never
563
been identified yet (Yamamoto et al., in this issue; Isozaki et al., 2016 in this issue)
564
probably because the putative heavy meteorite bombardment after 4.4.Ga (Abramov et al,
565
2013; Marchi et al., 2014; Shibaike et al., 2016). Conventional understanding prefers
566
konatiitic/basaltic composition for the primodial crusts. On the other hand, in analogy to
567
the Moon’s crust, possible anorthositic crust and landmass composed of it are proposed
568
(Maruyama et al., 2013; Santosh et al., 2016 in this issue; Maruyama et al., in this issue);
569
nonetheless the details are still unknown.
570
4.6.2. Stage 2 (4.4–3.2 Ga):
571
gradually lowered, plate subduction eventually started sometime by the early Archean,
572
and possibly even in the earlier half of the Hadean. The Earth’s surface was probably
573
covered with numerous small oceanic plates that hosted many subduction zones with
574
intra-oceanic arcs during this period (Figs. 8A and 9). Granitic arc crusts were formed
575
not in a big size individually, but the large number of arcs in total produced a huge
576
amount of granitic crusts during this interval. On the other hand, the primordial
577
continental crusts and also juvenile ones were destroyed and transported into the mantle,
578
and the primodial ones were totally terminated on the planet’s surface (Azuma et al.,
579
2016; Ichikawa et al., 2016 in this issue).
580
4.6.3. Stage 3 (3.2–1.8 Ga): Through the island arcs accretion, embryonic continents
581
would appeared during this period. Sizes of many Archean blocks remained in extant
582
continents suggest that Archean island arcs have had more or less similar sizes (ca. 1,000
583
km long and 200 km wide or less) to modern ones; e.g., Izu-Bonin-Mariana arc (e.g. Card,
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Immediately after the > 4.4 Ga consolidation of
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As the surface temperature of the young planet
27
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1990; Kimura et al., 1993; Dirks and Jelsma, 1998; White et al., 2003; Percival et al.,
585
2006; Korsch et al., 2011; Zhai and Santosh, 2011). Such a dimension further suggests the
586
average size of late Archean plates was comparable to the Philippine Sea Plate.
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The present compilation of detrital zircon data suggests that growth rate of
588
embryonic continents was extremely low during the Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic (2.9
589
to 2.3 Ga; Fig. 7), and that average size of Archean embryonic continents was much
590
smaller than that of the modern ones. As most of their peripheries were likely surrounded
591
by subduction zones (Fig. 8B), the slow growth rate suggests that subduction itself may
592
have not contributed to net continental growth but induced ubiquitous recycling of the
593
continental crust by continuous subduction erosion. Consequently, embryonic continents
594
may have suffered more frequent replacement of older crusts by newer ones than younger
595
continents.
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587
Some of those embryonic continents likely coalesced to form larger masses (Fig.
597
8B), and further accretion of island arcs also added more crusts. Following the
598
above-discussed average size of embryonic continents, the larger continental masses may
599
have reached the size of modern Greenland or Indian Peninsula. On the other hand,
600
continental break-up likely decomposed pre-existing continental masses into small
601
fragmental pieces. Repetition of these processes probably led the pre-2.3 Ga slow net
602
growth of continents, and most of older Archean continental crusts has been lost by this
603
period.
604
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4.6.4. Stage 4 (1.8–1.0 Ga):
Larger continents were formed through the
605
amalgamation of plural embryonic continents. By ca. 1.8 Ga, such a large continental
606
mass that can be called supercontinent appeared for the first time in history. The oldest 28
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supercontinent has been assumed previously in the name of Nuna (Hoffman, 1988), and
608
more recently called Columbia (Rogers and Santosh, 2002; Zhang et al., 2012; Meert,
609
2012; Roberts, 2013). The Colombia Supercontinent had following unique features
610
distinct from younger supercontinents. For example, (1) Colombia was extremely stable
611
without major break-up for a long period. Frequent activities of dyke swarms and
612
A-type granite magmatism recorded the impingement of many mantle plume in the
613
domain of Columbia (e.g. Whitmeyer and Karlstrom, 2007; Gladkochub et al., 2010) but
614
no break-up occurred along with these. (2) Lesser number of passive continental
615
margins developed during this period (Bradley, 2008). (3) Continental growth during
616
this period was driven mainly by accretion of plural island arcs with juvenile continental
617
crust (e.g. Geraldes et al., 2001; Karlstrom et al., 2001; Whitmeyer and Karlstrom, 2007;
618
Korsch et al., 2011). (4) Ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks and eclogite
619
were rare. These suggest that continental collision has been extremely rare for a long
620
time until the next supercontinent Rodinia was formed at ca. 1.3–1.1 Ga (Brown, 2007).
621
Also active production of juvenile continental crust during this distinct period has
622
been suggested by previous U-Pb-Hf isotopic analysis and its compilation of the detrital
623
zircons (Roberts, 2012; Iizuka et al., 2013). The compilations in this study also support
624
the rapid continental growth during this period (Fig. 7). Debate continues to date
625
whether this increase in continental growth during this period was real or just an
626
artifact (Roberts, 2013).
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607
627
We speculate that effective continental growth would have been performed by
628
intermittently repeated accretion of island arcs to stable continents (Fig. 8C). This was led
629
probably by the assumed higher mantle temperature, ca. 100°C higher than that of 29
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modern mantle (Fig 9A; Komiya, 2004; Hertberg et al., 2010). Conditions of ceanic
631
plates were probably similar to those of the Archean ones; many oceanic island arcs were
632
probably generated in a similar way. On the other hand, older continental crusts were
633
protected from later tectonism around the peripheries, thus preferentially preserved in the
634
inner part of stable continents. Margins of a supercontinent were dominated mostly by
635
accreted juvenile island arc crusts rather than rocks of passive continental margin or
636
continental arc.
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4.6.5. Stage 5 (1.0-0 Ma): The last fifth stage is characterized by modern-style plate
638
tectonics and Wilson cycle continuing since ca. 1.3–1.0 Ga building of the Rodinia
639
Supercontinent and ca. 0.7 Ga its breaking-up. As decreasing mantle potential
640
temperature (Fig. 9A), seawater was introduced into the mantle and lowered the viscosity
641
of mantle materials, which activated plate tectonics (Maruyama and Liou, 1998, 2005).
642
The size of oceanic plates became larger than previous ones, and number of oceanic
643
island arcs drastically decreased. Most of the current oceanic island arcs are situated in
644
western Pacific region and Caribbean Sea which occupy only about 5% of the Earth’s
645
surface (Yamamoto et al., 2010). Along subduction zones, long-lived Cordillera-type
646
orogeny has been dominant rather than accretion of island arcs. The compilation suggests
647
that volume of continents turned to decrease around 1.0 Ga. This estimation is consistent
648
with observations of modern subduction zones and Phanelozoic Pacific-type orogens
649
which are considered as decreasing or equilibrium of the continental mass (Scholl and
650
von Huene, 2007, 2009; Clift et al., 2009; Isozaki et al., 2010).
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651
30
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652
4.7. More granitic crusts in mantle As to the occurrence of continental crusts on the Earth’s surface, we documented
654
that huge amounts of granitic crusts have been produced and disappeared in the past
655
probably since the Hadean. On the contrary from the mantle perspective, a huge amount
656
of granitic material has been incorporated into the mantle ever since the Archean time. It
657
is not easy to quantitatively estimate the total amount of granitic material in the mantle,
658
however, we have some clues to check it in terms of high-pressure mineralogy and
659
seismology. Considering mineral phase transition of quartz to stishovite in mantle depth,
660
Kawai et al. (2009) utilized the first principle calculation to estimate the extent of
661
possible host zone for granitic material within mantle, and suggested that up to seven
662
times greater volume of extant continents of the world can be stored in the mantle
663
transition zone and its surroundings in 270–800 km deep mantle, the “second continent”
664
independent of the first continents on the surface. Adding onto the secular change curve
665
for continental mass on the surface, Fig. 10 illustrates our speculative model for the
666
entire amount of continental crusts produced in our planet throughout history. Ever
667
since the Archean, a large amount of ancient continental crusts of granitic composition
668
has been possibly accumulated in mid-mantle depth. The occurrence of a large mass of
669
granitic composition has a profound significance, as granitoids contain abundant
670
radiogenic elements, therefore, contribute to heat budget and convention pattern of the
671
mantle (Senshu et al., 2009). This claimed “hidden” second continent has not been
672
detected yet; however, we hope more sophisticated tomographic analysis may confirm it
673
in the future.
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674
Finally, most continental crusts formed in the Earth’s history were likely recycled
675
into the mantle rather than remaining on the planetary surface. Such a new view of granite 31
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676
subduction is totally different from what we have believed before; i.e. continents once
677
formed would never disappear from the planet’s surface.
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32
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679
5. Conclusions In addition to the new U-Pb dating of detrital zircon ages for 4 Archean sandstones
681
from the Pilbara (Australia), Wyoming (N. America), and Kaapvaal (Africa) cratons, we
682
compiled previously published detrital zircon ages in order to recognize the overall
683
evolutional trend of continents. The unique approach of this study is in checking and
684
comparing detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra, for 6 distinct time intervals, i.e., 2.9, 2.6, 2.3,
685
1.0, 0.6, and 0.0 Ga. The results of the compilations demonstrated the following episodes
686
in the history of continental crust; (1) low growth rate of the continents due to the short
687
cycle in production/destruction of granitic crust during 2.9 to 2.3 Ga, (2) net increase in
688
volume of the continents from 2.3 to 1.0 Ga, and 3) net decrease in volume of the
689
continents from 1.0 Ga to the current. Consequently, the present study documented an
690
alternative history of continental growth, which is different from the previous models in
691
several aspects.
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680
We propose ca. 3.2, 1.8, and 1.0 Ga as turning points in growth of continents. These
693
correspond to the timing of major changes in size of continents. In the Archean and
694
Paleoproterozoic, the embryonic continents were smaller than the modern continents,
695
probably owing to the relatively rapid production and destruction of continental crust.
696
This is indeed reflected in the crustal age structure of modern continents that usually have
697
relatively small amount of Archean crusts with respect to the post-Archean ones. During
698
the Mesoproterozoic, plural continents amalgamated into larger ones comparable to
699
modern continental blocks in size. Relatively older crusts were preserved in continental
700
interiors, whereas younger crusts were accreted along continental peripheries. The direct
701
accretion of intra-oceanic island arc crusts around continental peripheries became more
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33
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702
important through time for net continental growth.
703
heterogeneity in age structure of large continental blocks, and consequently the
704
preservation bias of older crusts.
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This created a remarkable
The total amount of continents reached the maximum around 1.0 Ga, whereas it started
706
to decrease after 1.0 Ga. This appears consistent with on-going phenomena along
707
modern active arc-trench system with dominant tectonic erosion and/or arc subduction.
708
The present study suggests the subduction of a huge amount of granitic crusts into the
709
mantle through time since the Archean, thus require re-consideration of the mantle
710
composition and heterogeneity.
711 712
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Acknowledgements. Constructive comments from two anonymous reviewers were
715
helpful for improving this manuscript.
716
(Tokyo Inst. Tech.) for their helpful comments and discussions, and J. Dohm (U.
717
Tokyo) and H. Asanuma (Tokyo Inst. Tech.) for help in rock sampling in field. This
718
work was supported by Japan Society of Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI
719
Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant Nos. 23224012, 26106002, and 26106005)
720
from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, Technology, and Culture.
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We thank Y. Sawaki, Y. Ueno, and S. Azuma
721
34
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Appendix A. Supplementary Material
723
The following tables are the supplementary material related to this article:
724
Table A.1 List of area, stratum, references, sample numbers and cumulative age
725
proportions of each sample for compilation.
726
Table A.2 LA-ICP-MS analyzed data and calculated U-Pb ages of detrital zircons.
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727
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Figure A.1. Testing of the compilation by repeated integration in different combination
730
of data sources.
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Snyder, G. A., Taylor, L. A., and Neal, C. R. 1992. A chemical model for generating the sources
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magmasphere. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 5610, 3809-3823. Stern, C. R. 2011. Subduction erosion: rates, mechanisms, and its role in arc magmatism and the evolution of the continental crust and mantle. Gondwana Research, 202, 284-308.
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J. 2005. Tectonic inferences from the ca. 1255–1100 Ma Unkar Group and Nankoweap
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Tunheng, Apinya, and Takafumi Hirata 2004. "Development of signal smoothing device for
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Ushikubo, T., Kita, N. T., Cavosie, A. J., Wilde, S. A., Rudnick, R. L., and Valley, J. W. 2008.
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Utsunomiya, A., Ota, T., Windley, B. F., Suzuki, N., Uchio, Y., Munekata, K., and Maruyama, S.
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Vallini, D. A., Cannon, W. F., and Schulz, K. J. 2006. Age constraints for Paleoproterozoic
1140
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1142
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van Hunen, J. and van den Berg, A. P. 2008. Plate tectonics on the early Earth: limitations
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Yanagisawa, T., and Yamagishi, Y. 2005. Rayleigh-Benard convection in spherical shell with infinite Prandtl number at high Rayleigh number. J. Earth Simulator, 4, 11-17. Zhai, M. G., and Santosh, M. 2011. The early Precambrian odyssey of the North China Craton: a synoptic overview. Gondwana Research, 201, 6-25.
Zhang, S. H., Zhao, Y., and Santosh, M. 2012. Mid-Mesoproterozoic bimodal magmatic rocks
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Figure captions
1198
Figure 1: World geotectonic map, continental growth curves previously proposed, and
1199
idealized secular change in age structure of continental crust.
1200
(A) World geotectonic map compiled by Maruyama et al. (2007).
1201
areas for the Archean (2.5–4.0 Ga) crusts with respect to younger ones.
1202
(B)Representative continental growth curves (Fyfe, 1978; McLennan and Taylor, 1982;
1203
Goodwin, 1986; Utsunomiya et al., 2007; Rino et al. 2008) for comparison. Note the
1204
shaded area between the cumulative curves by Utsunomiya et al. (2007) and Rino et al.
1205
(2008), which represents the difference between the remaining crust mass in map view
1206
and the crustal volume estimated from zircon abundance in river sands. This suggests
1207
the amount of sedimentary recycling of pre-existing continental crusts, particularly
1208
during the last one billion years. (C) Schematic diagram showing the reconstruction of
1209
ancient age structure of continental crust by extrapolating the same pattern from modern
1210
river sands into the Proterozoic or Archean time without assuming any recycling in the
1211
past; however, such an extreme case never occurred in the real history.
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Note the small total
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1213
Figure 2: Age intervals and localities of zircon-bearing sandstone samples in the present
1214
data compilation. Samples are divided into 6 distinct age bins; i.e., ca. 2.9, 2.6 Ga
1215
(Archean), ca. 2.3, 1.0,
1216
Data sources are as follows: (A) ca. 2.9 Ga sandstones (1, 2–Sircombe et al., 2001; 3–
1217
Mishima et al., 2012; 4–Dodson et al., 1988); 5–Crowly et al., 2005; 6–Pidgeon et al.,
1218
2010; 7–this study. (B) ca. 2.6 Ga (1–Sawada et al., 2016; 2–Krapez et al., 2000;
0.6 Ga (Proterozoic), and 0 Ga (Phanerozoic).
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3–Machado et al., 1996; 4–Bohm et al., 2003; 5–Hokada et al., 2013; 6–this study). (C)
1220
ca. 2.3 Ga (1–Sawada et al., submitted; 2–Valini et al., 2006; 3–Mapeo et al., 2006;
1221
4–Kozhevnikov et al., 2010; 5–Li et al., 2008; 6 and 7–this study). (D) ca. 1.0 Ga
1222
(1–Bingen et al., 2011; 2–Dhuime et al., 2007; 3–Griffin et al., 2006; 4–Kirkland et al.,
1223
2008; 5–Li et al., 2007; 6–Rainbird et al., 1998; 7–Abati et al., 2010; 8–Malone et al.,
1224
2008; 9–Timmoos et al., 2005). (E) ca. 0.6 Ga (1– Gehrels et al., 2011); 2–Cawood and
1225
Nemchin, 2001; 3–Wang et al., 2010; 4– Darby and Gehrels, 2006; 5–Shu et al., 2011;
1226
6–Van Schmus et al., 2003; 7–Cawood et al., 2003; 8–Drost et al., 2011; 9–Linnemann
1227
et al., 2011). (F) ca. 0 Ga (Rino et al., 2008; river sands from sixteen major river
1228
mouths).
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Figure 3: The stratigraphic columns showing the levels of the 4 sandstone samples from
1231
the Archean–Proterozoic crusts in the Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa, Pilbara craton
1232
in western Australia, and the Wyoming craton in North America, for which detrital
1233
zircon U-Pb age were dated in this study. The levels of major unconformities are after
1234
Karlstrom et al. (1983) and Hokada et al. (2013).
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1236
Figure 4: Age spectra and cumulative age frequency distribution of analyzed detrital
1237
zircons of the 4 sandstone samples from the Kaapvaal craton in southern Africa (PP78),
1238
Pilbara craton in western Australia (RM246 and TC255), and the Wyoming craton in
1239
North America (WY3). Age spectra of analyzed sandstones are shown in frequency
1240
distribution (green lines) and cumulative curves (red lines).
55
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1241 Figure 5: Comparison in cumulative curves of averaged detrital zircon age spectra for 6
1243
distinct time bins, i.e. ca. 2.9, 2.6 Ga (Archean), ca. 2.3, 1.0, 0.6 Ga (Proterozoic), and 0
1244
Ga (Phanerozoic) (see main text for original references).
1245
Vertical axis show age structure of continents in the form of cumulative age frequency
1246
distribution with taking 100 % on a continental volume at each period. (A) cumulative
1247
curves of raw data of averaged age spectra; (B) cumulative lines fitted for polygonal line
1248
function with original curves of age structure.
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1249
Figure 6: Patterns of possible cumulative curves (fitted cumulative lines) and
1251
interpretations in terms of net growth (production minus destruction) of continental
1252
crusts and their preservation bias.
1253
(A) When crust production is constant without destruction, the cumulative line changes
1254
its slope toward gentle, and the age span becomes wider along time (from t0 to t2). (B)
1255
Three options (1 to 3) may occur according to a balance between the production and
1256
destruction of continental crust; i.e., (1) production exceeding destruction, (2) balanced,
1257
and (3) destruction exceeds production. The mutual distance (age) between lines and
1258
their slopes are different among the three options. (C) Six options (1 to 6) may occur
1259
according to the production/destruction balance and also to preservation bias. The 2.9,
1260
2.6, and 2.3 Ga cumulative curves correspond to the option 2, whereas those of 1.0, 0.6
1261
and 0 Ga to the option 6.
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Figure 7: Estimated growth history of continents after 3.0 Ga, on the basis of the present
1264
compilation of detrital zircon age spectra of sandstones in 6 time bins and their
1265
interpretation.
1266
Note that the main trend in continental growth with rapid increase during ca. 2.0–1.0 Ga
1267
and sharp decrease after 1.0 Ga. The first large continent (Nuna/Columbia) appeared as
1268
soon as the main increase started, whereas the onset of modern-style cold subduction
1269
terminated the unidirectional continental growth, instead, the decrease of total
1270
continental mass.
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Figure 8: Schematic models of continental growth and island arc accretion since the
1273
Hadean in map view and in profile, and the corresponding world map.
1274
(A) During ca. 4.4–3.2 Ga, numerous island arcs formed during this time interval (right
1275
map) and accretion/subduction of island arcs occurred frequently. In the case of parallel
1276
collision of two island arcs (left), they easily amalgamated to each other and grew into
1277
minor land masses (arc accretion). In contrast, in the case of perpendicular collision of
1278
one arc to the other, the crust of the colliding arc likely subducted smoothly into the
1279
mantle (arc subduction; middle). Moreover, the subduction erosion also occurred to
1280
destruct pre-existing arc crusts. Consequently the preservation potential of the
1281
continental crust was very small.
1282
arcs (left) emerged as embryonic continents, which were larger than individual island
1283
arcs but smaller than that of modern continents without having significant amount of
1284
older crust (right).
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(B) During ca. 3.2–1.8 Ga, some collided composite
Tectonic recycling occurred along active continental margins (left, 57
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1285
middle) to suppress the net growth of continental crusts.
1286
plural embryonic continents amalgamated to build larger continents comparable to
1287
modern ones (right). Pre-existing crusts in the interiors were protected from the
1288
subduction-related tectonism along the active margins (left, middle), thus the
1289
preferential preservation of older crusts started (left, middle). For example, around ca.
1290
1.8–1.7 Ga the first supercontinent Nuna/Columbia developed. On the other hand, the
1291
accretion of island arcs along the peripheries were effective to increase the total mass of
1292
continental crusts.
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(C) During ca. 1.8–1.0 Ga,
1293 1294
Figure 9:
1295
view with respect to the cumulative curves of detrital zircon ages from 6 time bins and
1296
to assumed mantle potential temperature.
1297
(A) World map with continental crusts in three time intervals; i.e., 4.5–3.2 Ga, 3.2–1.8
1298
Ga, and 1.8–1.0 Ga (simplified from Fig. 8).
1299
continents (Fig. 7).
1300
(Komiya, 2004; Herzberg et al., 2010). Note that the mode change in continental entity
1301
through time occurred in accordance with the general cooling trend of the planet, and
1302
this is reflected in detrital zircon age patterns.
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(B) A speculative growth history of
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(C) Assumed secular change in potential mantle temperature
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1303
Schematic images showing the secular change in continental growth in map
1304
Figure 10: Speculative diagram showing the secular change in total production of
1305
continental crust (light blue), in total subduction of continental crust into the mantle
1306
(light purple), and the resultant growth pattern of continents (orange) through time. 58
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The production/subduction of old continental crusts, older than the Mesoproterozoic,
1308
was huge in magnitude with respect to that in the Phanerzooic. This suggests the burial
1309
of great amount of granitic crustal material into the mantle in the earlier half of the
1310
Earth’s history.
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Tables
1315
Table 1 Fitting for polygonal line function and continental average cycle calculated
1316
from the result of fitting.
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59
ACCEPTED Table 1 Fitting for polygonal line function and continental average cycle calculated from the result of fitting. Age T[Ma] 2900 2600 2300 100 600 0 767
748 1287 1938 2869
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678
EP
Cycle = X-T [Myr.]
3578 3367 3048 2287 2538 2869
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A. ca. 4.4-3.2 Ga arc subduction
parallel collision
perpendicular collision
A
A
B
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very small preservation B A
SC
B
B
A
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arc accretion
oceanic island arcs
B. ca. 3.2-1.8 Ga
A
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embryonic continent (composite arc) small preservation A
B
AC C
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B
C. ca. 1.8-1.0 Ga
embryonic continents
preserved old crust
stable large continent
large preservation A
A
B
B
arc accretion
stable large continents
5000 km
subduction orogen
trench mid oceanic ridge
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