The progressive onset and evolution of Precambrian subduction and plate tectonics
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e progressive onset and evolution of Precambrian subduction and plate tectonics 1*
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Xiaolei WANG , Fulai LIU , Junyong LI & Di WANG 1
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State Key laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China; 2 Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China Received March 6, 2020; revised October 31, 2020; accepted November 14, 2020; published online November 12, 2020
Abstract The regime of plate tectonics on early Earth is one of the fundamental problems in Earth sciences. Precambrian era takes the majority (ca. 88%) of Earth’s history and thus plays a key role in understanding the onset of plate tectonics and the mechanism, distribution and process of Precambrian subduction zones. This paper presents a review on the progresses of subduction and subduction zones in different stages of Precambrian era, and sorts out some key issues and fields that merits further attention. We suggest that there was progressive onset and evolution of subduction and plate tectonics from Archean to Proterozoic eras. We emphasize the importance of comprehensive studies on subduction mechanism, metamorphic type, plate tectonics regime, the compositional evolution of continental crust, and petrogenesis of diverse granitoids formed in the Archean. It is proposed that innovative analytical techniques, big data, experimental petrology and numerical geodynamic modeling will facilitate future studies of Precambrian subduction zones. Keywords Citation:
Precambrian, Subduction, Plate tectonics, Continent formation, Progressive evolution
Wang X, Liu F, Li J, Wang D. 2020. The progressive onset and evolution of Precambrian subduction and plate tectonics. Science China Earth Sciences, 63, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-020-9698-0
1. Introduction The term subduction refers to the geological process of one lithospheric plate descending beneath another into the asthenosphere along convergent plate boundaries (Zheng, 2020a). Subduction zone, which was initially discerned based on seismological data, is commonly composed of descending plate, trench, accretionary wedge, magmatic arc, paired metamorphic belts and so on (Stern, 2002; Zheng and Chen, 2016). It is not only a place witnessing frequently geological hazard like earthquake and volcanic explosion, but also an important site for crust-mantle interaction and a key area of mineralization (Bierlein et al., 2009) and continental growth (Davidson and Arculus, 2006; Jagoutz and Kelemen, 2015; Zheng, 2020b). Whatever ocean-ocean
subduction, ocean-continent subduction, or continent-continent subduction, subduction zone is essentially linked to plate tectonics in its formation (Zheng, 2020b), and it was even considered as an “engine” for plate tectonics (Forsyth and Uyeda, 1975). It should be noted that the definitions and studies of subduction and subduction zone mainly arise from the observations of associated magmatism, metamorphism, mineralization and crustal recycling in Phanerozoic subduct
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