Low heat flow inferred from >4 Gyr zircons suggests Hadean plate boundary interactions

Michelle Hopkins, T. Mark Harrison () and Craig E. Manning
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Michelle Hopkins: University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
T. Mark Harrison: University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA
Craig E. Manning: University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 456, issue 7221, 493-496

Abstract: Early Earth: on a low heat The first 600 million years or so of the Earth's history (the Hadean Eon) remain poorly understood, largely because there is no rock record dating from that era. Ancient zircons from that time period are, however, resistant minerals that can potentially provide insights into the conditions on the Earth at that time. Mark Harrison and colleagues now present an examination of inclusion assemblages in Hadean zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia, which constrain the magmatic formation conditions to about 700°C and 7 kbar. This result implies a near-surface heat flow about three to five times lower than estimates of global Hadean heat flow. As the only site of magmatism on modern Earth that is characterized by heat flow of a quarter of the global average is above subduction zones, the authors suggest that the magmas from which the Jack Hills Hadean zircons crystallized, formed largely in an underthrust environment, perhaps similar to modern convergent margins.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07465

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