Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Delamination and recycling of Archaean crust caused by gravitational instabilities

Abstract

Mantle temperatures during the Archaean eon were higher than today. As a consequence, the primary crust formed at the time is thought to have been extensive, thick and magnesium rich, and underlain by a highly residual mantle1. However, the preserved volume of this crust today is low, implying that much of it was recycled back into the mantle2. Furthermore, Archaean crust exposed today is composed mostly of tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite, indicative of a hydrated, low-magnesium basalt source3, suggesting that they were not directly generated from a magnesium-rich primary crust. Here we present thermodynamic calculations that indicate that the stable mineral assemblages expected to form at the base of a 45-km-thick, fully hydrated and anhydrous magnesium-rich crust are denser than the underlying, complementary residual mantle. We use two-dimensional geodynamic models to show that the base of magmatically over-thickened magnesium-rich crust, whether fully hydrated or anhydrous, would have been gravitationally unstable at mantle temperatures greater than 1,500–1,550 °C. The dense crust would drip down into the mantle, generating a return flow of asthenospheric mantle that melts to create more primary crust. Continued melting of over-thickened and dripping magnesium-rich crust, combined with fractionation of primary magmas, may have produced the hydrated magnesium-poor basalts necessary to source tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite melts. The residues of these processes, with an ultramafic composition, must now reside in the mantle.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Calculated primary melt compositions for Precambrian non-arc basalts.
Figure 2: Results of thermodynamic modelling of primary crust and complementary residues at 1,000 °C.
Figure 3: Density (ρ) of primary crust and complementary residues.
Figure 4: Results of geodynamic modelling; snapshots from an experiment with 45-km-thick initial primary crust and Tp of 1,600 °C.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Herzberg, C., Condie, K. & Korenaga, J. Thermal history of the Earth and its petrological expression. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 292, 79–88 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Herzberg, C. & Rudnick, R. Formation of cratonic lithosphere: An integrated thermal and petrological model. Lithos 149, 4–15 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Foley, S., Tiepolo, M. & Vannucci, R. Growth of early continental crust controlled by melting of amphibolite in subduction zones. Nature 417, 837–840 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Herzberg, C. et al. Temperatures in ambient mantle and plumes: Constraints from basalts, picrites and komatiites. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 8, Q02006 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Goodwin, A. Precambrian Geology: The Dynamic Evolution of the Continental Crust (Academic, 1991).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Dhuime, B., Hawkesworth, C. J., Cawood, P. A. & Storey, C. D. A change in the geodynamics of continental growth 3 billion years ago. Science 335, 1334–1336 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Davies, G. F. Effect of plate bending on the Urey ratio and the thermal evolution of the mantle. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 287, 513–518 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Van Hunen, J. & Moyen, J-F. Archean subduction: Fact or fiction? Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 40, 195–219 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Arndt, N. T. & Lesher, C. M. in Komatiites (eds Selley, R. C., Cocks, L. R. M. & Plimer, I. R.) 260–267 (Encyclopedia of Geol., Vol. 3, Elsevier, 2005).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Brown, M. Metamorphic conditions in orogenic belts: A record of secular change. Int. Geol. Rev. 49, 193–234 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Sizova, E., Gerya, T., Brown, M. & Perchuk, L. Subduction styles in the Precambrian: Insight from numerical experiments. Lithos 116, 209–229 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Mareschal, J-C. & Jaupart, C. 61–73 (Geophys. Monogr. Ser., Vol. 164, AGU, 2006).

  13. Niida, K. & Green, D. H. Stability and chemical composition of pargasitic amphibole in MORB pyrolite under upper mantle conditions. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 135, 18–40 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Foley, S. F., Buhre, S. & Jacob, D. E. Evolution of the Archaean crust by delamination and shallow subduction. Nature 421, 249–252 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Rushmer, T. Partial melting of two amphibolites: Contrasting experimental results under fluid-absent conditions. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 107, 41–59 (1991).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Elkins-Tanton, L. T. Continental magmatism, volatile recycling, and a heterogeneous mantle caused by lithospheric gravitational instabilities. J. Geophys. Res. 112, B03405 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Bedard, J. H. A catalytic delamination-driven model for coupled genesis of Archaean crust and sub-continental lithospheric mantle. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 70, 1188–1214 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Jagoutz, O., Müntener, O., Schmidt, M. W. & Burg, J-P. The roles of flux- and decompression melting and their respective fractionation lines for continental crust formation: Evidence from the Kohistan arc. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 303, 25–36 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Kerr, A. C., Tarney, J., Nivia, A., Marriner, G. F. & Saunders, A. D. The internal structure of oceanic plateaus: Inferences from obducted Cretaceous terranes in western Colombia and the Caribbean. Tectonophysics 292, 173–188 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Fitton, J. G., Mahoney, J. J., Wallace, P. J. & Saunders, A. D. (eds) Origin and evolution of the ontong Java plateau. Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ. 229, 1–368 (2004).

  21. Kelemen, P. B., Koga, K. & Shimizu, N. Geochemistry of gabbro sills in the crust-mantle transition zone of the Oman ophiolite: Implications for the origin of the oceanic lower crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 146, 475–488 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Gonzaga, R. et al. Eclogites and garnet pyroxenites: Similarities and differences. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 190, 235–247 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Jacob, D. Nature and origin of eclogite xenoliths from kimberlites. Lithos 77, 295–316 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Barth, M. G. et al. Geochemistry of xenolithic eclogites from West Africa, part 2: Origins of the high MgO eclogites. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 66, 4325–4345 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Moyen, J-F. The composite Archaean grey gneisses: Petrological significance, and evidence for a non-unique tectonic setting for Archaean crustal growth. Lithos 123, 21–36 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Connolly, J. A. D. Computation of phase equilibria by linear programming: A tool for geodynamic modeling and its application to subduction zone decarbonation. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 236, 524–541 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Holland, T. J. B. & Powell, R. An internally consistent thermodynamic data set for phases of petrological interest. J. Metamorph. Geol. 16, 309–343 (1998).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Diener, J. F. A. & Powell, R. Revised activity-composition relations for clinopyroxene and amphibole. J. Metamorph. Geol. 30, 131–142 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Thielmann, M. & Kaus, B. Shear heating induced lithospheric-scale localization: Does it result in subduction? Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 359-360, 1–13 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Kaus, B. Factors that control the angle of shear bands in geodynamic numerical models of brittle deformation. Tectonophysics 484, 36–47 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank S. Aulbach, J. Connolly, G. Davies, S. Fischer, S. F. Foley, E. C. R. Green, C. Herzberg, D. E. Jacob and R. W. White for comments. M.B. and T.E.J. acknowledge financial support from the Geocycles Earth Systems Research Centre, University of Mainz. B.J.P.K. was financially supported by ERC Starting Grant 258830.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

M.B. and T.E.J. developed the project; T.E.J. calculated the phase diagrams and B.J.P.K. developed and ran the numerical models. All authors discussed the results and were involved in writing the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tim E. Johnson.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 9963 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Johnson, T., Brown, M., Kaus, B. et al. Delamination and recycling of Archaean crust caused by gravitational instabilities. Nature Geosci 7, 47–52 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2019

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2019

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing