No evidence for high-pressure melting of Earth’s crust in the Archean

oleh: Robert H. Smithies, Yongjun Lu, Tim E. Johnson, Christopher L. Kirkland, Kevin F. Cassidy, David C. Champion, David R. Mole, Ivan Zibra, Klaus Gessner, Jyotindra Sapkota, Matthew C. De Paoli, Marc Poujol

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Nature Portfolio 2019-12-01

Deskripsi

Some of Earth’s earliest continental crust has been previously inferred to have formed from partial melting of hydrated mafic crust at pressures above 1.5 GPa (more than 50 km deep), pressures typically not reached in post-Archean continental crust. Here, the authors show that such high pressure signatures can result from melting of mantle sources rather than melting of crust, and they suggest there is a lack of evidence that Earth’s earliest crust melted at depths significantly below 40 km.