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cratons

Field photo of a rock outcrop.
Posted inEditors' Highlights

Structural Inversion of an Intracratonic Rift System in Deep Time

by Alexis Ault 31 October 202431 October 2024

A new study reconstructs how an ancient North American rift system was uplifted in space and time due to subsequent continent-continent collision.

Rocas grises bandeadas entre pasto verde y pequeñas flores blancas
Posted inNews

Sedimentos radiactivos podrían haber construido los cratones de la Tierra

Javier Barbuzano, Science Writer by Javier Barbuzano 2 August 20242 August 2024

La meteorización de los primeros continentes podría haber puesto en marcha la formación de cratones, las raíces inmutables de los continentes.

Gray rocks among green grasses and flowers
Posted inNews

Radioactive Sediments May Have Built Earth’s Cratons

Javier Barbuzano, Science Writer by Javier Barbuzano 14 June 20244 August 2024

Weathering of the earliest continents could have set in motion the formation of cratons, the immutable roots of continents.

A piece of rock under a microscope. Colors are mostly gray and beige, with a small section of blue near the center. A legend on the bottom right indicates the image is about 100 micrometers across.
Posted inResearch Spotlights

Mantle Heat May Have Boosted Earth’s Crust 3 Billion Years Ago

by Rebecca Owen 23 April 202423 April 2024

Information from igneous zircon molecules gives researchers new insight into the workings of inner Earth.

Depiction of the of the “melt-percolation barrier” model from the paper.
Posted inEditors' Highlights

Do Some Cratons Have Soggy Bottoms?

by Peter Zeitler 8 January 20248 January 2024

Long-persistent stable cratons bear much of the deep-time geologic record, and a new study combines seismic and petrological data to reveal how interactions with mantle fluids can shape their evolution.

Diagram from the study
Posted inEditors' Highlights

Piecing Together the Roots of the Ancient Australian Continent

by Paul Asimow 25 October 202326 October 2023

Mineral compositions from numerous volcanic rocks that sample the mantle keel beneath Western Australia’s Kimberley Craton reveal the temperature and mineralogy that explain its long-lived stability.

Photo of a rock outcrop
Posted inEditors' Vox

The Seven-Ages of Earth as Seen Through the Continental Lens

by Peter A. Cawood and Priyadarshi Chowdhury 24 February 202320 June 2024

The 4.5-billion-year record contained in Earth’s continental crust reveals a seven-phase evolution, from an initial magma ocean to the present-day environment in which we live.

Diagram showing the reaction process between carbonatite melt and harzburgite mantle rock.
Posted inEditors' Highlights

Why is the North China Craton Vulnerable to Destruction?

by Sujoy Ghosh 20 October 202218 October 2022

A new study suggests that carbonatite metasomatism, not silicate metasomatism as previously thought, was dominant prior to the removal of the North China Craton in the early Cretaceous.

Researchers collect sediments from a rocky stream with a helicopter and steep rock hills in the background
Posted inScience Updates

Earth’s Continents Share an Ancient Crustal Ancestor

by J. Hollis, C. Kirkland, M. Hartnady, M. Barham and A. Steenfelt 23 August 202122 February 2022

How did today’s continents come to be? Geological sleuths found clues in grains of sand.

Photograph of The Great Unconformity visible in The Grand Canyon
Posted inEditors' Highlights

The Great Unconformities?

by Peter van der Beek 3 August 20219 December 2022

New thermochronology data and thermal history modeling from the Canadian Shield show that the Great Unconformity formed there later than elsewhere in North America and may represent another event.

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