| Citation: |
LU Guimei. 2024. The breakup geodynamic process and effects of the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Columbia supercontinent. Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology, 44(1): 205-215. doi: 10.19826/j.cnki.1009-3850.2024.01003
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The breakup geodynamic process and effects of the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Columbia supercontinent
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Abstract
The assembly and breakup of supercontinents is the self-expression of plate tectonics. The assembly stage is accompanied by global-scale subduction and collisional orogeny, while the fragmentation stage produces large-scale mafic magmatic events. The Columbia supercontinent was the first true supercontinent in Earth's history, and its main body coalesced between 2.1~1.8 Ga and finally broke apart at 1.3 Ga. Compared with the other younger supercontinents, the paleogeographic reconstruction model of the Columbia supercontinent still remains quite uncertain, which profoundly influences our understanding of the geodynamic processes and effects of its breakup. In this study, based on the correlation of global Paleo-Mesoproterozoic mafic magmatism events, integrated with the published work and analysis of global igneous rock geochemical data, we proposed that multiple Paleo-Mesoproterozoic mantle plume events resulted in the incomplete breakup of the Columbia supercontinent, which significantly affected the geochemical compositions and topographic height of the continental crust at that time. Highly differentiated continental crust and low topographic height together greatly reduced the flux of nutrients into the ocean by weathering and denudation of continental crust materials, thus limiting the primary productivity of marine organisms, and ultimately stalling the evolution of life during the transition period from the Colombian supercontinent to the Rodinia supercontinent.
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Keywords:
- Columbia supercontinent /
- Incomplete breakup /
- Mantle plumes /
- Paleo-Mesoproterozoic
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References
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LU Guimei. 2024. The breakup geodynamic process and effects of the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Columbia supercontinent. Sedimentary Geology and Tethyan Geology, 44(1): 205-215. doi: 10.19826/j.cnki.1009-3850.2024.01003
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Figure 1.
The reconstruction models for the Columbia supercontinent (a, modified after Rogers and Santosh, 2009; b, modified after Zhao et al., 2002)
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Figure 2.
The comparisons for the reconstruction models of the Columbia and Rodinia supercontinents (modified after Wang et al., 2021)
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Figure 3.
The age comparison for the global mafic magmatic events during the early breakup of the Columbia supercontinent
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Figure 4.
The variation diagram for the geochemical compositions of the global 2.5-0.5 Ga intermediate to felsic magmatic rocks (modified after Lu et al., 2023)
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Figure 5.
The diagrams for deconvolving the effect of fractional crystallization (modified after Lu et al., 2023)
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Figure 6.
The diagram for the calculated continental weathering intensity (modified after Lu et al., 2023)