Metamorphism and the evolution of plate tectonics

Robert M. Holder (), Daniel R. Viete, Michael Brown and Tim E. Johnson
Additional contact information
Robert M. Holder: Johns Hopkins University
Daniel R. Viete: Johns Hopkins University
Michael Brown: University of Maryland
Tim E. Johnson: Curtin University

Nature, 2019, vol. 572, issue 7769, 378-381

Abstract: Abstract Earth’s mantle convection, which facilitates planetary heat loss, is manifested at the surface as present-day plate tectonics1. When plate tectonics emerged and how it has evolved through time are two of the most fundamental and challenging questions in Earth science1–4. 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 formed5,6. Changes in the global distribution of metamorphic (P, T) conditions in the continental crust through time might therefore reflect the secular evolution of Earth’s tectonic processes. On modern Earth, convergent plate margins are characterized by metamorphic rocks that show a bimodal distribution of apparent thermal gradients (temperature change with depth; parameterized here as metamorphic T/P) in the form of paired metamorphic belts5, which is attributed to metamorphism near (low T/P) and away from (high T/P) subduction zones5,6. Here we show that Earth’s modern plate tectonic regime has developed gradually with secular cooling of the mantle since the Neoarchaean era, 2.5 billion years ago. We evaluate the emergence of bimodal metamorphism (as a proxy for secular change in plate tectonics) using a statistical evaluation of the distributions of metamorphic T/P through time. We find that the distribution of metamorphic T/P has gradually become wider and more distinctly bimodal from the Neoarchaean era to the present day, and the average metamorphic T/P has decreased since the Palaeoproterozoic era. Our results contrast with studies that inferred an abrupt transition in tectonic style in the Neoproterozoic era (about 0.7 billion years ago1,7,8) or that suggested that modern plate tectonics has operated since the Palaeoproterozoic era (about two billion years ago9–12) at the latest.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1462-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:572:y:2019:i:7769:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1462-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1462-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().