Earth’s interior cooled over time, making the outer crust stronger. In the Neoarchean era (about 2.8–2.5 billion years ago), this stronger crust began to show early signs of the tectonic processes we see in today's plate tectonics era.
By studying ancient rocks in Western Australia, we found evidence that parts of the crust were pushed down and lifted back up by about 10 km—a process comparable to modern mountain-building.
These findings show that Earth’s crust was already capable of forming substantial mountain belts much earlier than previously thought. They offer new constraints and insight into the geological processes that preceded the full establishment of plate tectonics.
Evidence of early Plate Tectonics features found in 2.6 billion year old rocks of Westrn Australia
We’re excited to share new research published in Nature Communications: Transition towards plate tectonics tracked in the metamorphic signature of Neoarchean synmagmatic transpression.