Science, Space and Technology News 2024
A new study by Penn State researchers suggests that cratons, ancient structures stabilizing Earth’s continents, formed around 3 billion years ago through processes initiated by the atmospheric weathering of rock, not just the emergence of stable landmasses. This challenges traditional views and has implications for understanding planetary evolution and the conditions conducive to life.
Weathering may have ultimately concentrated heat-producing elements like uranium, thorium, and potassium in the shallow crust, allowing the deeper crust to cool and harden. This mechanism created a thick, hard layer of rock that may have protected the bottoms of the continents from being deformed later — a characteristic feature of cratons, the scientists said.
Collisions between tectonic plates buried these sedimentary rocks deep in the Earth’s crust where radiogenic heat released by the shale triggered the melting of the lower crust. The melts were buoyant and ascended back to the upper crust, trapping the heat-producing elements there in rocks like granite and allowing the lower crust to cool and harden.
“We can think of this as a planetary evolution question,” Reimink said. “One of the key ingredients you need to make a planet like Earth might be the emergence of continents relatively early on in its lifespan. Because you’re going to create radioactive sediments that are very hot and that produce a really stable tract of continental crust that lives right around sea level and is a great environment for propagating life.
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