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Hadean and Early Archaean High Grade Metamorphic Terrains

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The Archaean: Geological and Geochemical Windows into the Early Earth

Part of the book series: Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences ((MASE,volume 9))

Abstract

The oldest terrestrial minerals identified to date are 4,363 ± 20 Ma-old detrital zircons from Jack Hills, Western Australia (Valley et al. Geology 36:911–912, 2002; Nemchin et al. Earth Planet Sci Lett 244:218–233, 2006; Pidgeon and Nemchin, Precamb Res 150:201–220, 2006), predating the oldest known rocks – the ~4.0–4.03 Ga-old Acasta Gneiss (Bowring and Williams Contrib Mineral Petrol 134:3–16, 1999). The zircon data suggest development of low temperature hydrosphere predated the ~3.8 Ga Isua supracrustal belt of southwest Greenland by some 600 Ma. These greenstone belts contain a wealth of primary textural, mineralogical, geochemical and isotopic features allowing detailed insights into the nature of near Earth surface as well as deep seated plutonic processes. Early Archaean (>3.6 Ga) gneisses underlie approximately 10,000 km2 of Earth surface (Van Kranendonk et al., Paleo-archaean development of a continental nucleus: the east Pilbara terrain of the Pilbara craton. In: Van Kranendonk MJ, Smithies RH, Bennett VC (eds) Earth’s oldest rocks. Developments in Precambrian geology 15. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp 307–337, 2007a, Terra Nova 19:1–38, 2007b). Terrains containing >4.0 Ga (Hadean) detrital and xenocrystic zircons include the Mt Narryer-Jack Hills Terrain (<4404 Ma), Acasta Gneiss (4.03–3.94 Ga) (west Slave Province, northwest Canada) and East Antarctic Gneisses (4.06–3.85 Ga).

Who knows for certain

Who shall here declare it

Whence was it born, whence came creation

The Gods are later than this world’s formation

Who then can know the origins of the world

(The Rig Veda, X.129).

Ancient Water / Marble Bar

No one

Was there to hear

The muffled roar of an earthquake,

Nor anyone who froze with fear

Of rising cliffs, eclipsed deep lakes

Sparkling comet-lit horizons

Brighter than one thousand suns

That blinded no one’s vision.

No one

Stood there in awe

Of an angry black coned volcano

Nor any pair of eyes that saw

Red streams eject from inferno

Plumes spewing out of Earth

And yellow sulphur clouds

Choking no one’s breath.

No one

Was numbed by thunder

As jet black storms gathered

Nor anyone was struck asunder

By lightning, when rocks shuttered

Engulfed by gushing torrents

That drowned smouldering ashes

Which no one was to lament.

In time

Once again an orange star rose

Above a sleeping archipelago

Sun rays breaking into blue depth ooze

Waves rippling sand’s ebb and flow

Receding to submerged twilight worlds

Where budding algal mats

Declare life

On the young Earth .

A poem by Andrew Glikson

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  1. School of Archaeology and Anthropology and Planetary Science Institute, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Andrew Y. Glikson

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Glikson, A.Y. (2014). Hadean and Early Archaean High Grade Metamorphic Terrains. In: The Archaean: Geological and Geochemical Windows into the Early Earth. Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07908-0_2

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