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A model of crust–mantle differentiation for the early Earth

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Abstract

The Archean continents, primarily composed of the felsic tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) suite, were formed or conserved since ~ 3.8 Ga, with significant growth of the continental crust since ~ 2.7 Ga. The difficulty in direct differentiation of the felsic crustal components from Earth’s mantle peridotite leads to a requirement for the presence of a large amount of hydrated mafic precursor of TTG in Earth’s proto-crust, the origin of which, however, remains elusive. The mafic proto-crust may have formed as early as ~ 4.4 Ga ago as reflected by the Hf and Nd isotopic signals from Earth’s oldest geological records. Such a significant time lag between the formation of the mafic proto-crust and the occurrence of felsic continental crust is not reconciled with a single-stage scenario of Earth’s early differentiation. Here, inspired by the volcanism-dominated heat-pipe tectonics witnessed on Jupiter’s moon Io and the resemblances of the intensive internal heating and active magmatism between the early Earth and the present-day Io, we present a conceptual model of Earth’s early crust-mantle differentiation, which involves an Io-like scenario of efficient extraction of a mafic proto-crust from the early mantle, followed by an intrusion-dominating regime that could account for the subsequent formation of the felsic continents as Earth cools. The model thus allows an early formation of the pre-TTG proto-crust and the generation of TTG in the continent by providing the favorable conditions for its subsequent melting. This model is consistent with the observed early fractionation of the Earth and the late but rapid formation and/or accumulation of the felsic components in the Archean continents, thus sheds new light on the early Earth’s differentiation and tectonic evolution.

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Acknowledgements

The manuscript benefits from the constructive comments and suggestions of reviewers Prof. Guochun Zhao and Dr. Da Wang. We thank Prof. Xiaobin Cao for providing literature about the oxygen isotope of early Earth’s rocks. The work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Nos. 41804092, 42130114), the Pre-research Project on Civil Aerospace Technologies (No. D020202) funded by the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA), and the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of CAS (XDB41000000).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China

    Qingwen Zhang, Dan Zhu, Wei Du & Yun Liu

  2. International Center for Planetary Science, College of Earth Sciences, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu, 610059, China

    Yun Liu

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  1. Qingwen Zhang
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Correspondence to Yun Liu.

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Zhang, Q., Zhu, D., Du, W. et al. A model of crust–mantle differentiation for the early Earth. Acta Geochim 41, 689–703 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-022-00529-y

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