Growth of continental crust in intra-oceanic and continental-margin arc systems: Analogs for Archean systems

Earth’s continental crust has grown and been recycled throughout geologic history along convergent plate margins.The main locus of continental crustal growth is in intra-oceanic and continental-margin arc systems in Archean time. In arc systems, oceanic lithosphere is subducted to the deeper mantle, and together with its overlying sedimentary sequence is in some cases off-scraped to form accretionary prisms. Fluids are released from the subducting slab to chemically react with the mantle wedge, forming mafic-ultramafic metasomatites, whose partial melting generates mafic melts that rise up to form arcs. In intraoceanic arcs, they produce dominantly basaltic lavas, with a mid-crust that includes variably-developed vertically-walled intermediate plutons and higher-level dikes and sills. In continental-margin arcs, different petrogenetic processes cause assimilation and fractionation of basaltic magmas, partial melting/reworking of juvenile basaltic rocks, and mixing of mantle-and crust-derived melts, so they produce andesitic calc-alkaline melts but still have a mid-crust dominated by vertically-walled felsic plutons, which form 3-D dome-and-basin structures, akin to those in some Archean terranes such as parts of the Pilbara and Zimbabwe cratons. Notably, the continental crust of Archean times is dominated by tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite(TTG)plutons, similar to that of the mid-crust of these arc systems, suggesting that early continental crust may have formed largely by the amalgamation of multiple arc systems. The patterns of magmatism, in terms of petrogenesis, rock types, duration of magmatic and accretionary events, and the spatial scales of deformation and magmatism have remained essentially the same throughout geological history, demonstrating that plate tectonic processes characterized by subduction and arc magmatism have been in operation at least as long as recorded by the preserved geologic record, since the Eoarchean. However, the early Earth was dominated by accretionary orogens and oceanic arcs, that gradually grew thicker through multiple accretion events to form early continental-margin arcs by 3.5–3.2 Ga, and accretionary orogens. Slab melting and warmer metamorphism was more common in Archean arc systems due to higher mantle temperatures. These early arcs were further amalgamated into large emergent continents by ~3.2–3.0 Ga, allowing large-scale processes such as lithospheric rifting and continental collisions, and the start of the supercontinent cycle. Further work should apply the null hypothesis, that plate tectonics explains the geologic record, to test for differences in the style of plate tectonics and magmatism through time, based on the fundamental difference in planetary heat production and the evolution of rotational dynamics of the Earth-Sun-Moon system.

Identification of the Original Tectonic Setting for Oceanic Andesite Using Discrimination Diagrams:An Approach Based on Global Geochemical Data Synthesis

Systematical analyses of data from GEOROC and PetDB database show that large amount of Cenozoic andesites occurred in the various oceanic environments such as mid-oceanic ridge,plumerelated island and oceanic arc.In this study,we employed the geochemical data of 351 mid-ocean ridge andesites(MORA),2539 plume-related andesites(PRA)and 3488 oceanic arc andesites(OAA)from the database to discuss the relationship between andesite tectonic settings and their geochemical features,thereby making an attempt to construct tectonic discrimination diagrams.Based on the data-driven pattern,all available elements were employed to derive logratios for the possible coordinates,and the overlap-rate calculation was adopted to evaluate the discrimination effect of more than 330000 prospective diagrams.Finally,four tectonic discrimination diagrams have been successfully established to identify MORA,PRA and OAA,which can be utilized to identify the original settings of andesite with an age range from Cenozoic to Archean a certain extent.Of these diagrams,PRA is mainly distinguished by high LREE/HREE ratio due to enriched mantle source.Whereas,OAA is mainly characterized by high LILE/HFSE ratio,which reveals that fluids derived from subducted slab play an important role in forming oceanic arc andesites.Consequently,the petrogenesis of andesites is closely related to their tectonic settings.However,it should be noted that those andesites formed in both continental and oceanic environments cannot be effectively distinguished using these diagrams.We strongly recommend integrating the discrimination diagrams result with other geological information to reach a comprehensive interpretation of evolution history with those ancient andesites.This paper presents a case study which suggests that data-driven method is a powerful tool for solving geological problems in this’big data’era.