Dhuime, B., Hawkesworth, C. J., Cawood, P. A. & Storey, C. D. A change in the geodynamics of continental growth 3 billion years ago. Science 335, 1334–1336 (2012).
Google Scholar
Rapp, R. P. & Watson, E. B. Dehydration melting of metabasalt at 8–32 kbar: implications for continental growth and crust-mantle recycling. J. Petrol. 36, 891–931 (1995).
Google Scholar
Martin, H., Smithies, R. H., Rapp, R., Moyen, J.-F. & Champion, D. An overview of adakite, tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG), and sanukitoid: relationships and some implications for crustal evolution. Lithos 79, 1–24 (2005).
Google Scholar
Johnson, T. E., Brown, M., Kaus, B. J. P. & VanTongeren, J. A. Delamination and recycling of Archaean crust caused by gravitational instabilities. Nat. Geosci. 7, 47–52 (2014).
Google Scholar
Martin, H., Moyen, J.-F., Guitreau, M., Blichert-Toft, J. & Le Pennec, J.-L. Why Archaean TTG cannot be generated by MORB melting in subduction zones. Lithos 198–199, 1–13 (2014).
Google Scholar
Johnson, T. E., Brown, M., Gardiner, N. J., Kirkland, C. L. & Smithies, R. H. Earth’s first stable continents did not form by subduction. Nature 543, 239–242 (2017); correction 545, 510 (2017).
Google Scholar
King, E. M., Valley, J. W., Davis, D. W. & Edwards, G. R. Oxygen isotope ratios of Archean plutonic zircons from granite-greenstone belts of the Superior Province: indicator of magmatic source. Precambr. Res. 92, 365–387 (1998).
Google Scholar
Valley, J. W. et al. 4.4 billion years of crustal maturation: oxygen isotope ratios of magmatic zircon. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 150, 561–580 (2005).
Google Scholar
Smithies, R. H., Champion, D. C. & Van Kranendonk, M. J. Formation of Paleoarchean continental crust through infracrustal melting of enriched basalt. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 281, 298–306 (2009).
Google Scholar
Hickman, A. H. & Van Kranendonk, M. J. Early Earth evolution: evidence from the 3.5–1.8 Ga geological history of the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Episodes 35, 283–297 (2012).
François, C., Philippot, P., Rey, P. & Rubatto, D. Burial and exhumation during Archean sagduction in the East Pilbara granite–greenstone terrane. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 396, 235–251 (2014).
Google Scholar
Van Kranendonk, M. J. et al. Making it thick: a volcanic plateau origin of Palaeoarchean continental lithosphere of the Pilbara and Kaapvaal cratons. In Continent Formation Through Time Geological Society Special Publication No. 389 (eds Roberts, N. M. W. et al.) 83–111 (The Geological Society of London, 2015).
Wiemer, D., Schrank, C. E., Murphy, D. T., Wenham, L. & Allen, C. M. Earth’s oldest stable crust in the Pilbara Craton formed by cyclic gravitational overturns. Nat. Geosci. 11, 357–361 (2018).
Google Scholar
Byerly, B., Kareem, K., Bao, H. & Byerly, G. R. Early Earth mantle heterogeneity revealed by light oxygen isotopes of Archaean komatiites. Nat. Geosci. 10, 871–875 (2017).
Google Scholar
Debaille, V. et al. Stagnant-lid tectonics in early Earth revealed by 142Nd variations in late Archean rocks. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 373, 83–92 (2013).
Google Scholar
Bédard, J. H. Stagnant lids and mantle overturns: implications for Archaean tectonics, magmagenesis, crustal growth, mantle evolution, and the start of plate tectonics. Geosci. Front. 9, 19–49 (2018).
Google Scholar
Hawkesworth, C. J. & Brown, M. Earth dynamics and the development of plate tectonics. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 376, 20180228 (2018).
Google Scholar
Nebel, O. et al. When crust comes of age: on the chemical evolution of Archaean, felsic continental crust by crustal drip tectonics. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 376, 20180103 (2018).
Google Scholar
Cawood, P., Kröner, A. & Pisarevsky, S. Precambrian plate tectonics: criteria and evidence. GSA Today 16, 4–11 (2006).
Harrison, T. M., Schmitt, A. K., McCulloch, M. T. & Lovera, O. M. Early (≥4.5 Ga) formation of terrestrial crust: Lu–Hf, δ18O, and Ti thermometry results for Hadean zircons. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 268, 476–486 (2008).
Google Scholar
Bindeman, I. N. & Valley, J. W. Low-δ18O rhyolites from Yellowstone: magmatic evolution based on analyses of zircons and individual phenocrysts. J. Petrol. 42, 1491–1517 (2001).
Google Scholar
Petersson, A. et al. A new 3.59 Ga magmatic suite and a chondritic source to the east Pilbara Craton. Chem. Geol. 511, 51–70 (2019).
Google Scholar
Ge, R. et al. Generation of Eoarchean continental crust from altered mafic rocks derived from a chondritic mantle: The ~3.72 Ga Aktash gneisses, Tarim Craton (NW China). Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 538, 116225 (2020).
Google Scholar
Wang, Y.-F., Li, X.-H., Jin, W., Zeng, L. & Zhang, J.-H. Generation and maturation of Mesoarchean continental crust in the Anshan Complex, North China Craton. Precambr. Res. 341, 105651 (2020).
Google Scholar
Zeh, A., Stern, R. A. & Gerdes, A. The oldest zircons of Africa—their U–Pb–Hf–O isotope and trace element systematics, and implications for Hadean to Archean crust–mantle evolution. Precambr. Res. 241, 203–230 (2014).
Google Scholar
Condie, K. C. How to make a continent: thirty-five years of TTG research. In Evolution of Archean Crust and Early Life (eds Dilek, Y. & Furnes, H.) 179–193 (Springer, 2014).
Vezinet, A. et al. Hydrothermally-altered mafic crust as source for early Earth TTG: Pb/Hf/O isotope and trace element evidence in zircon from TTG of the Eoarchean Saglek Block, N. Labrador. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 503, 95–107 (2018).
Google Scholar
de Wit, M. J. & Furnes, H. 3.5-Ga hydrothermal fields and diamictites in the Barberton Greenstone Belt—Paleoarchean crust in cold environments. Sci. Adv. 2, e1500368 (2016).
Google Scholar
André, L. et al. Early continental crust generated by reworking of basalts variably silicified by seawater. Nat. Geosci. 12, 769–773 (2019).
Google Scholar
Sizova, E., Gerya, T., Stüwe, K. & Brown, M. Generation of felsic crust in the Archean: a geodynamic modelling perspective. Precambr. Res. 271, 198–224 (2015).
Google Scholar
Mole, D. R. et al. Time-space evolution of an Archean craton: a Hf-isotope window into continent formation. Earth Sci. Rev. 196, 102831 (2019).
Google Scholar
Nutman, A. P., Bennett, V. C. & Friend, C. R. L. The emergence of the Eoarchaean proto-arc: evolution of a c. 3700 Ma convergent plate boundary at Isua, southern West Greenland. In Continent Formation Through Time Geological Society Special Publication No. 389 (eds Roberts, N. M. W. et al.) 113–133 (The Geological Society of London, 2015).
Hastie, A. R. & Fitton, J. G. Eoarchaean tectonics: new constraints from high pressure-temperature experiments and mass balance modelling. Precambr. Res. 325, 20–38 (2019).
Google Scholar
Moyen, J.-F., Champion, D. C. & Smithies, R. H. The geochemistry of Archaean plagioclase-rich granites as a marker of source enrichment and depth of melting. Earth Environ. Sci. Trans. R. Soc. Edinb. 100, 35–50 (2009).
Google Scholar
Champion, D. C. & Smithies, R. H. Geochemistry of Paleoarchean granites of the East Pilbara Terrane, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia: implications for early Archean crustal growth. In Earth’s Oldest Rocks (eds Van Kranendonk, M. J. et al.) 369–409 (Elsevier, 2007).
Smithies, R. H. & Champion, D. C. The Archaean high-Mg diorite suite: links to tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite magmatism and implications for early Archaean crustal growth. J. Petrol. 41, 1653–1671 (2000).
Google Scholar
Stern, R. A. & Hanson, G. N. Archaean high-Mg granodiorite: a derivative of light rare earth element-enriched monzodiorite of mantle origin. J. Petrol. 32, 201–238 (1991).
Google Scholar
Bindeman, I. N. et al. Oxygen isotope evidence for slab melting in modern and ancient subduction zones. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 235, 480–496 (2005).
Google Scholar
Hallis, L. J. et al. Evidence for primordial water in Earth’s deep mantle. Science 350, 795–797 (2015).
Google Scholar
Williams, C. D., Mukhopadhyay, S., Rudolph, M. L. & Romanowicz, B. Primitive helium is sourced from seismically slow regions in the lowermost mantle. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 20, 4130–4145 (2019).
Google Scholar
Palme, H. & O’Neill, H. St. C. Cosmochemical estimates of mantle composition. In Treatise on Geochemistry 2nd edn, Vol. 3 (eds Holland, H. D. & Turekian, K. K.) 1–39 (Elsevier, 2014).
Salters, V. J. M. & Stracke, A. Composition of the depleted mantle. Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst. 5, Q05B07 (2004).
Gardiner, N. J. et al. Processes of crust formation in the early Earth imaged through Hf isotopes from the East Pilbara Terrane. Precambr. Res. 297, 56–76 (2017).
Google Scholar
Smithies, R. H. et al. No evidence for high-pressure melting of Earth’s crust in the Archean. Nat. Commun. 10, 5559 (2019).
Google Scholar
Smithies, R. H. et al. Two distinct origins for Archean greenstone belts. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 487, 106–116 (2018).
Google Scholar
O’Neill, C., Turner, S. & Rushmer, T. The inception of plate tectonics: a record of failure. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 376, 20170414 (2018).
Google Scholar
Sun, S.-s. & McDonough, W. F. Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: implications for mantle composition and processes. In Magmatism in the Ocean Basins Geological Society Special Publication No. 42 (eds Saunders, A. D. & Norry, M. J.) 313–345 (The Geological Society of London, 1989).
de Oliveira, M. A., Dall’Agnol, R. & Scaillet, B. Petrological constraints on crystallization conditions of Mesoarchean sanukitoid rocks, Southeastern Amazonian Craton, Brazil. J. Petrol. 51, 2121–2148 (2010).
Google Scholar
Pidgeon, R. T., Nemchin, A. A. & Cliff, J. Interaction of weathering solutions with oxygen and U–Pb isotopic systems of radiation-damaged zircon from an Archean granite, Darling Range Batholith, Western Australia. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 166, 511–523 (2013).
Google Scholar
Black, L. P. et al. Improved 206Pb/238U microprobe geochronology by the monitoring of a trace-element-related matrix effect; SHRIMP, ID–TIMS, ELA–ICP–MS and oxygen isotope documentation for a series of zircon standards. Chem. Geol. 205, 115–140 (2004).
Google Scholar
Nasdala, L. et al. Zircon M257 – a homogeneous natural reference material for the ion microprobe U–Pb analysis of zircon. Geostand. Geoanal. Res. 32, 247–265 (2008).
Google Scholar
Cavosie, A. J. et al. The origin of high δ18O zircons: marbles, megacrysts, and metamorphism. Contrib. Mineral. Petrol. 162, 961–974 (2011).
Google Scholar
Van Kranendonk, M. J., Kirkland, C. L. & Cliff, J. Oxygen isotopes in Pilbara Craton zircons support a global increase in crustal recycling at 3.2 Ga. Lithos 228-229, 90–98 (2015).
Google Scholar
Pidgeon, R. T., Nemchin, A. A. & Whitehouse, M. J. The effect of weathering on U–Th–Pb and oxygen isotope systems of ancient zircons from the Jack Hills, Western Australia. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 197, 142–166 (2017).
Google Scholar
Watson, E. B. & Harrison, T. M. Zircon saturation revisited: temperature and composition effects in a variety of crustal magma types. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 64, 295–304 (1983).
Google Scholar
Smithies, R. H., Van Kranendonk, M. J. & Champion, D. C. It started with a plume: early Archaean basaltic proto-continental crust. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 238, 284–297 (2005).
Google Scholar
Geological Survey of Western Australia Compilation of Geochronology Information, 2020 https://dmpbookshop.eruditetechnologies.com.au/product/compilation-of-geochronology-information-2020.do (Geological Survey of Western Australia, 2020).
Martin, D. M. B., Hocking, R. M., Riganti, A. & Tyler, I. M. Geological Map of Western Australia, 1:2 500 000 14th edn (Geological Survey of Western Australia, 2015).