The great differences between the Archean and modern times: Could there have been plate tectonics in the Archean?

ZHANG Qi; JIAO Shoutao

2021 Vol. 40, No. 9

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ZHANG Qi, JIAO Shoutao. The great differences between the Archean and modern times: Could there have been plate tectonics in the Archean?[J]. Geological Bulletin of China, 2021, 40(9): 1403-1409.

Citation:

ZHANG Qi, JIAO Shoutao. The great differences between the Archean and modern times: Could there have been plate tectonics in the Archean?[J]. Geological Bulletin of China, 2021, 40(9): 1403-1409.

The great differences between the Archean and modern times: Could there have been plate tectonics in the Archean?

ZHANG Qi^1,2,,
JIAO Shoutao^3,4

1.
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
2.
State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
3.
Development Research Center, China Geological Survey, Beijing 100037, China
4.
Technology Innovation Center of Geological Information, MNR, Beijing 100037, China

Received Date: 13 October 2020

Revised Date: 22 April 2021

Publish Date: 15 September 2021

Abstract

Abstract

Most outcropped Archean rocks(such as TTG, komatiite and greenstone belt) are different from the modern ones.Therefore, the idea of "the present is the key to the past" is not suitable to be extended to the Archean Eon, nor can the Archean TTG be compared to the present adakites.TTG had nothing to do with subduction, and might be formed by partial melting of sodium-rich basalts in the initial crust under the tectonic setting of the stagnant lid instead of by crustal thickening.The earth is a process of continuous heat dissipation.The Archean Eon belongs to the hot sphere stage, and the earth might enter the cold sphere stage after the Proterozoic Eon.Therefore, the Archean might be mainly characterized by stagnant lid tectonics, and plate tectonics might have appeared after the Proterozoic.As possibility of plate thermal subduction is small, only when the lithosphere is cold enough and has certain rigidity and buoyancy, can the plate subduction occur.Only by establishing the geological record of plate tectonics(such as ophiolite, blueschist, melanges, deep-sea deposits, etc.) can we know when plate tectonics began.
- Archean Eon /
- TTG /
- plate tectonics /
- stagnant lid structure /
- the idea of "the present is the key to the past"

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References

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