Greenstone basalts and komatiites provide a means to track both mantle composition and magma generation temperature with time. Four types of mantle are characterized from incompatible element distributions in basalts ...Greenstone basalts and komatiites provide a means to track both mantle composition and magma generation temperature with time. Four types of mantle are characterized from incompatible element distributions in basalts and komatiites： depleted, hydrated, enriched and mantle from which komatiites are derived. Our most important observation is the recognition for the first time of what we refer to as a Great Thermal Divergence within the mantle beginning near the end of the Archean, which we ascribe to thermal and convective evolution. Prior to 2.5 Ga, depleted and enriched mantle have indistinguishable thermal histories, whereas at 2.5-2.0 Ga a divergence in mantle magma generation temperature begins between these two types of mantle. Major and incompatible element distributions and calculated magma generation temperatures suggest that Archean enriched mantle did not come from mantle plumes, but was part of an undifferentiated or well-mixed mantle similar in composition to calculated primitive mantle. During this time, however, high-temperature mantle plumes from dominantly depleted sources gave rise to komatiites and associated basalts. Recycling of oceanic crust into the deep mantle after the Archean may have contributed to enrichment ofTi, A1, Ca and Na in basalts derived from enriched mantle sources. After 2.5 Ga, increases in Mg# in basalts from depleted mantle and decreases in Fe and Mn reflect some combination of growing depletion and cooling of depleted mantle with time. A delay in cooling of depleted mantle until after the Archean probably reflects a combination of greater radiogenic heat sources in the Archean mantle and the propagation of plate tectonics after 3 Ga.展开更多
The Earth is the only body in the solar system for which significant observational constraints are accessible to such a degree that they can be used to discriminate between competing models of Earth's tectonic evo...The Earth is the only body in the solar system for which significant observational constraints are accessible to such a degree that they can be used to discriminate between competing models of Earth's tectonic evolution.It is a natural tendency to use observations of the Earth to inform more general models of planetary evolution.However,our understating of Earth's evolution is far from complete.In recent years,there has been growing geodynamic and geochemical evidence that suggests that plate tectonics may not have operated on the early Earth,with both the timing of its onset and the length of its activity far from certain.Recently,the potential of tectonic bi-stability(multiple stable,energetically allowed solutions)has been shown to be dynamically viable,both from analytical analysis and through numeric experiments in two and three dimensions.This indicates that multiple tectonic modes may operate on a single planetary body at different times within its temporal evolution.It also allows for the potential that feedback mechanisms between the internal dynamics and surface processes(e.g.,surface temperature changes driven by long term climate evolution),acting at different thermal evolution times,can cause terrestrial worlds to alternate between multiple tectonic states over giga-year timescales.The implication within this framework is that terrestrial planets have the potential to migrate through tectonic regimes at similar‘thermal evolution times'(e.g.,points were they have a similar bulk mantle temperature and energies),but at very different'temporal times'(time since planetary formation).It can be further shown that identical planets at similar stages of their evolution may exhibit different tectonic regimes due to random variations.Here,we will discuss constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Earth and present a novel framework of planetary evolution that moves toward probabilistic arguments based on general physical principals,as opposed to particular rheologies,and incorporates the potential of tecton展开更多
The thermal state of the early Earth’s interior and its way of cooling are crucial for its subsequent evo-lution.Earth is initially hot as it acquired enormous heat in response to violent processes during its formati...The thermal state of the early Earth’s interior and its way of cooling are crucial for its subsequent evo-lution.Earth is initially hot as it acquired enormous heat in response to violent processes during its formation,e.g.,the Moon-forming giant impact,the segregation and formation of its metallic core,the tidal interaction with the early Moon,and the decay of radioactive elements,etc.In the meantime,the cooling mechanisms of early Earth’s mantle remain elusive despite their importance,and the previously proposed cooling models of the mantle are controversial.In this paper,we first reviewed several prevalent parameter-ized thermal evolution models of the early mantle.The models give unrealistic predictions since they were estab-lished solely based on a single tectonic regime,such as the stagnant-lid regime,or relied on the disputable existence of the plate tectonics prior to-3.5 Ga.Then we argue that the mantle should have started to cool down from a very hot state after the solidification of the ferocious magma ocean.Instead of using one single scaling law to describe a single-stage model,we suggest that an episodic multi-stage cooling model(EMCM)of the early mantle could be more plausible to account for the mantle’s early cooling process.The model reconciles with the fact that the mantle cools down from a hot state prior to*3.5 Ga and can also explain the well-constrained post-3.5 Ga thermal history of the mantle.展开更多
The tectonic settings of the different stages of the magmatic activity in the middle-south section of the Da Hinggan Mts. are analyzed through measuring the isotopic ages of the Mesozoic volcano-plutonic rocks from th...The tectonic settings of the different stages of the magmatic activity in the middle-south section of the Da Hinggan Mts. are analyzed through measuring the isotopic ages of the Mesozoic volcano-plutonic rocks from this area, and thus the tectono-magmatic evolution series are consequently determined as the initial mantle upwelling marked by the Late Triassic invasion of basic-ultrabasic rocks containing mantle-source enclaves, middle-upper crust extension marked by intrusion of the Early-Middle Jurassic diobase dike swarms, dramatic ruption of the Late Jurassic trachitic volcanic rocks, the Early Cretaceous nonorogenic alkalic-subalkalic granite invasion and the formation of the basic dike swarms and basalts. It is thus inferred that the uprise of the Da Hinggan Mts. in the Mesozoic is closely reiated to the upwelling of the deep magma in the mantle upwarping settings.展开更多
基金funding from the European Research Council(ERC StG 279828)
文摘Greenstone basalts and komatiites provide a means to track both mantle composition and magma generation temperature with time. Four types of mantle are characterized from incompatible element distributions in basalts and komatiites： depleted, hydrated, enriched and mantle from which komatiites are derived. Our most important observation is the recognition for the first time of what we refer to as a Great Thermal Divergence within the mantle beginning near the end of the Archean, which we ascribe to thermal and convective evolution. Prior to 2.5 Ga, depleted and enriched mantle have indistinguishable thermal histories, whereas at 2.5-2.0 Ga a divergence in mantle magma generation temperature begins between these two types of mantle. Major and incompatible element distributions and calculated magma generation temperatures suggest that Archean enriched mantle did not come from mantle plumes, but was part of an undifferentiated or well-mixed mantle similar in composition to calculated primitive mantle. During this time, however, high-temperature mantle plumes from dominantly depleted sources gave rise to komatiites and associated basalts. Recycling of oceanic crust into the deep mantle after the Archean may have contributed to enrichment ofTi, A1, Ca and Na in basalts derived from enriched mantle sources. After 2.5 Ga, increases in Mg# in basalts from depleted mantle and decreases in Fe and Mn reflect some combination of growing depletion and cooling of depleted mantle with time. A delay in cooling of depleted mantle until after the Archean probably reflects a combination of greater radiogenic heat sources in the Archean mantle and the propagation of plate tectonics after 3 Ga.
基金supported in part by the Cyberinfrastructure for Computational Research funded by NSF under Grant CNS-0821727the Data Analysis and Visualization Cyberinfrastructure funded by NSF under grant OCI-0959097Rice University
文摘The Earth is the only body in the solar system for which significant observational constraints are accessible to such a degree that they can be used to discriminate between competing models of Earth's tectonic evolution.It is a natural tendency to use observations of the Earth to inform more general models of planetary evolution.However,our understating of Earth's evolution is far from complete.In recent years,there has been growing geodynamic and geochemical evidence that suggests that plate tectonics may not have operated on the early Earth,with both the timing of its onset and the length of its activity far from certain.Recently,the potential of tectonic bi-stability(multiple stable,energetically allowed solutions)has been shown to be dynamically viable,both from analytical analysis and through numeric experiments in two and three dimensions.This indicates that multiple tectonic modes may operate on a single planetary body at different times within its temporal evolution.It also allows for the potential that feedback mechanisms between the internal dynamics and surface processes(e.g.,surface temperature changes driven by long term climate evolution),acting at different thermal evolution times,can cause terrestrial worlds to alternate between multiple tectonic states over giga-year timescales.The implication within this framework is that terrestrial planets have the potential to migrate through tectonic regimes at similar‘thermal evolution times'(e.g.,points were they have a similar bulk mantle temperature and energies),but at very different'temporal times'(time since planetary formation).It can be further shown that identical planets at similar stages of their evolution may exhibit different tectonic regimes due to random variations.Here,we will discuss constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Earth and present a novel framework of planetary evolution that moves toward probabilistic arguments based on general physical principals,as opposed to particular rheologies,and incorporates the potential of tecton
基金supported by the strategic priority research program(B)of CAS(XDB41000000)Chinese NSF projects(42130114)the pre-research Project on Civil Aerospace Technologies No.D020202 funded by the Chinese National Space Administration.
文摘The thermal state of the early Earth’s interior and its way of cooling are crucial for its subsequent evo-lution.Earth is initially hot as it acquired enormous heat in response to violent processes during its formation,e.g.,the Moon-forming giant impact,the segregation and formation of its metallic core,the tidal interaction with the early Moon,and the decay of radioactive elements,etc.In the meantime,the cooling mechanisms of early Earth’s mantle remain elusive despite their importance,and the previously proposed cooling models of the mantle are controversial.In this paper,we first reviewed several prevalent parameter-ized thermal evolution models of the early mantle.The models give unrealistic predictions since they were estab-lished solely based on a single tectonic regime,such as the stagnant-lid regime,or relied on the disputable existence of the plate tectonics prior to-3.5 Ga.Then we argue that the mantle should have started to cool down from a very hot state after the solidification of the ferocious magma ocean.Instead of using one single scaling law to describe a single-stage model,we suggest that an episodic multi-stage cooling model(EMCM)of the early mantle could be more plausible to account for the mantle’s early cooling process.The model reconciles with the fact that the mantle cools down from a hot state prior to*3.5 Ga and can also explain the well-constrained post-3.5 Ga thermal history of the mantle.
文摘The tectonic settings of the different stages of the magmatic activity in the middle-south section of the Da Hinggan Mts. are analyzed through measuring the isotopic ages of the Mesozoic volcano-plutonic rocks from this area, and thus the tectono-magmatic evolution series are consequently determined as the initial mantle upwelling marked by the Late Triassic invasion of basic-ultrabasic rocks containing mantle-source enclaves, middle-upper crust extension marked by intrusion of the Early-Middle Jurassic diobase dike swarms, dramatic ruption of the Late Jurassic trachitic volcanic rocks, the Early Cretaceous nonorogenic alkalic-subalkalic granite invasion and the formation of the basic dike swarms and basalts. It is thus inferred that the uprise of the Da Hinggan Mts. in the Mesozoic is closely reiated to the upwelling of the deep magma in the mantle upwarping settings.
