Synonyms
Definition
The Acasta gneiss complex in northwestern Canada contains some of the oldest dated rocks on earth and the oldest dated using U-Pb in zircon. They therefore potentially preserve clues to the nature and history of earth’s oldest crust. The geology of the gneisses reflects a complex multistage history of magmatism, metamorphism, and deformation over more than 400 million years, and the entire complex should be viewed as a small fragment of Hadean to Archean continental crust. The gneisses are compositionally diverse and range from granite and tonalite to gabbro and serpentinized ultramafic rocks. The oldest published crystallization age. There are isotopic and inherited zircon data consistent with the involvement of crust as old as 4.2 Ga. There is no single age of the Acasta gneiss complex (Bowring and Williams 1999).
Introduction
Components of the Acasta gneiss complex are among the oldest known rocks on earth. They are exposed in northwestern Canada...
Bibliography
Bleeker, W., and Stern, R. A., 1997. The Acasta Gneisses: an imperfect sample of Earth’s oldest crust. In Cook, F., and Erdmer, P. (eds.), Slave-Northern Cordillera Lithospheric Evolution (SNORCLE) Transect and Cordillera Tectonics Workshop Meeting, Lithoprobe Report 56. pp. 32–35.
Bowring, S. A., and Housh, T. B., 1995. The Earth’s early evolution. Science, 269, 1535–1540.
Bowring, S. A., and Williams, I. S., 1999. Priscian (4.00–4.03 Ga) orthogneisses from northwestern Canada. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 134, 3–16.
Bowring, S. A., Housh, T. B., and Isachsen, C. E., 1990. The Acasta Gneisses: Remnant of Earth’s Early Crust. Origin of the Earth. New York: Oxford University Press.
Iizuka, T., Horie, K., Komiya, T., Maruyama, S., Hirata, T., Hidaka, T., and Windley, B. F., 2006. 4.2 Ga zircon xenocryst in an Acasta gneiss from northwestern Canada: evidence for early continental crust. Geology, 34, 245–248.
Iizuka, T., Komiya, T., Ueno, Y., Katayama, I., Uehara, Y., Matuyama, S., Hirata, T., Johnson, S. P., and Dunkley, D. J., 2007. Geology and zircon geochronology of the Acasta Gneiss Complex, northwestern Canada: new constraints on its tectonothermal history. Precambrian Research, 153, 179–208.
Mojzsis, S. J., Cates, N. L., Caro, G., Trail, D., Abramov, O., Guitreau, M., Blichert-Toft, J., Hopkins, M. D., and Bleeker, W., 2014. Component geochronology in the polyphase ca 3920 Ma Acasta Gneiss. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 133, 68–96.
Sano, Y., Terada, K., Hidaka, H., Yokoyama, K., and Nutman, A. P., 1999. Palaeoproterozoic thermal events recorded in the ~4.0 Ga Acasta gneiss, Canada: evidence from SHRIMP U-Pb dating of apatite and zircon. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 63, 889–905.
Stern, R., and Bleeker, W., 1998. Age of the world’s oldest rocks refined using Canada’s SHRIMP: the Acasta Gneiss Complex, Northwest Territories, Canada. Geoscience Canada, 25, 27–31.
Valley, J. W., Cavosie, A. J., Ushikubo, T., Reinhard, D. A., Lawrence, D. F., Larson, D. J., Clifton, P. H., Kelly, T. F., Wilde, S. A., Moser, D. E., and Spicuzza, M. J., 2014. Hadean age for a post-magma-ocean zircon confirmed by atom-probe tomography. Nature Geoscience, 7, 219–223.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bowring, S., Chacko, T., Heaman, L., Reimink, J. (2014). Acasta Gneiss Complex. In: Rink, W., Thompson, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_91-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_91-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6326-5
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences