Formation and composition of Earth's Hadean protocrust
Simon Turner1, Bernard Wood2, Tim Johnson3
1School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. simon.turner@mq.edu.au.
Nature
|April 2, 2025
Summary
Early Earth
Area of Science:
- Geochemistry
- Planetary Science
- Early Earth Evolution
Background:
- Terrestrial planets, including Earth, formed an early protocrust from a magma ocean.
- The chemical composition of this early crust remains under-explored.
- Magma ocean differentiation occurred after core formation, influencing protocrust composition.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the chemical composition of Earth's early protocrust.
- To determine if the early protocrust possessed characteristics similar to modern continental crust.
- To reassess models of early plate tectonics and continental crust formation.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of experimental and chronological data related to magma ocean differentiation.
- Modeling the chemical composition of a protocrust formed under specific early Earth conditions.
- Comparison of modeled protocrust composition with current average continental crust.
Main Results:
- A protocrust formed after core extraction would exhibit incompatible trace-element characteristics.
- These characteristics closely resemble those of the current average continental crust.
- The Hadean protocrust likely possessed a continental trace-element signature.
Conclusions:
- The continental trace-element signature may be a primordial feature of Earth's crust.
- Subduction may not be the sole mechanism for generating the continental trace-element signature.
- This finding challenges existing models for the initiation of plate tectonics and continental evolution.
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