Global mantle perturbations following the onset of modern plate tectonics.

Plate tectonics drives the compositional diversity of Earth's convecting mantle through subduction of lithosphere. In this context, the role of evolving global geodynamics and plate (re)organization on the spatial and temporal distribution of compositional heterogeneities in the convecting mantle is poorly understood. Here, using the geochemical compositions of intracontinental basalts formed over the past billion years, we show that intracontinental basalts with subchondritic initial neodymium-144/neodymium-143 values become common only after 300 million years, broadly coeval with the global appearance of kimberlites with geochemically enriched isotopic signatures.

Changes in orogenic style and surface environment recorded in Paleoproterozoic foreland successions.

The Earth's interior and surficial systems underwent dramatic changes during the Paleoproterozoic, but the interaction between them remains poorly understood. Rocks deposited in orogenic foreland basins retain a record of the near surface to deep crustal processes that operate during subduction to collision and provide information on the interaction between plate tectonics and surface responses through time. Here, we document the depositional-to-deformational life cycle of a Paleoproterozoic foreland succession from the North China Craton.

Greenstone burial-exhumation cycles at the late Archean transition to plate tectonics.

Converging lines of evidence suggest that, during the late Archean, Earth completed its transition from a stagnant-lid to a plate tectonics regime, although how and when this transition occurred is debated. The geological record indicates that some form of subduction, a key component of plate tectonics-has operated since the Mesoarchean, even though the tectonic style and timescales of burial and exhumation cycles within ancient convergent margins are poorly constrained. Here, we present a Neoarchean pressure-temperature-time (P-T-t) path from supracrustal rocks of the transpressional Yilgarn orogen (Western Australia), which documents how sea-floor-altered rocks underwent deep burial then exhumation during shortening that was unrelated to the episode of burial.

Coexisting divergent and convergent plate boundary assemblages indicate plate tectonics in the Neoarchean.

The coexistence of divergent (spreading ridge) and convergent (subduction zone) plate boundaries at which lithosphere is respectively generated and destroyed is the hallmark of plate tectonics. Here, we document temporally- and spatially-associated Neoarchean (2.55-2.

Giant impacts and the origin and evolution of continents.

Earth is the only planet known to have continents, although how they formed and evolved is unclear. Here using the oxygen isotope compositions of dated magmatic zircon, we show that the Pilbara Craton in Western Australia, Earth's best-preserved Archaean (4.0-2.

Oxygen isotopes trace the origins of Earth's earliest continental crust.

Much of the current volume of Earth's continental crust had formed by the end of the Archaean eon (2.5 billion years ago), through melting of hydrated basaltic rocks at depths of approximately 25-50 kilometres, forming sodic granites of the tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) suite. However, the geodynamic setting and processes involved are debated, with fundamental questions arising, such as how and from where the required water was added to deep-crustal TTG source regions.

The internal structure and geodynamics of Mars inferred from a 4.2-Gyr zircon record.

Combining U-Pb ages with Lu-Hf data in zircon provides insights into the magmatic history of rocky planets. The Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034/7533 meteorites are samples of the southern highlands of Mars containing zircon with ages as old as 4476.3 ± 0.

No evidence for high-pressure melting of Earth's crust in the Archean.

Much of the present-day volume of Earth's continental crust had formed by the end of the Archean Eon, 2.5 billion years ago, through the conversion of basaltic (mafic) crust into sodic granite of tonalite, trondhjemite and granodiorite (TTG) composition. Distinctive chemical signatures in a small proportion of these rocks, the so-called high-pressure TTG, are interpreted to indicate partial melting of hydrated crust at pressures above 1.

Metamorphism and the evolution of plate tectonics.

Earth's mantle convection, which facilitates planetary heat loss, is manifested at the surface as present-day plate tectonics. When plate tectonics emerged and how it has evolved through time are two of the most fundamental and challenging questions in Earth science. Metamorphic rocks-rocks that have experienced solid-state mineral transformations due to changes in pressure (P) and temperature (T)-record periods of burial, heating, exhumation and cooling that reflect the tectonic environments in which they formed.

Corrigendum: Earth's first stable continents did not form by subduction.

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1038/nature21383.

Earth's first stable continents did not form by subduction.

The geodynamic environment in which Earth's first continents formed and were stabilized remains controversial. Most exposed continental crust that can be dated back to the Archaean eon (4 billion to 2.5 billion years ago) comprises tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite rocks (TTGs) that were formed through partial melting of hydrated low-magnesium basaltic rocks; notably, these TTGs have 'arc-like' signatures of trace elements and thus resemble the continental crust produced in modern subduction settings.