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Granite Skyscrapers pp 83–154Cite as

The Evolution of Modern Continents

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Abstract

In Chapter 2, we looked at the formation of continental crust in the Hadean and Archaean eras. This most likely involved the ascent of hot mantle plumes. In the earliest Hadean era, these made thick basaltic plateau that gradually, and partially, melted at their bases to produce TTGs and lots of komatiite and basalt: greenstone belts. An alternative model, involving the stacking up and partial melting of blocks of basaltic-komatiitic crust, is shown in Fig. 3.1. While it is unlikely to have produced the majority of the early continents, this process could have played a role in areas where mantle motion carried young continental fragments around the surface of the young Earth.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Nearly” in this context only means that there are no kimberlites younger than 80 million years, not that such diamonds are not currently forming beneath the continental crust.

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    David S. Stevenson

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Stevenson, D.S. (2018). The Evolution of Modern Continents. In: Granite Skyscrapers. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91503-6_3

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