EXTRATERRESTRIAL FACTORS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE EARTH’S TECTONIC EVOLUTION IN THE EARLY PRECAMBRIAN
M.Z. Glukhovskii1, M.I. Kuz’min2
1Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii per. 7, Moscow, 119017, Russia
2A.P. Vinogradov Institute of Geochemistry, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Favorskogo 1a, Irkutsk, 664033, Russia
Keywords: Early Earth, lunar-terrestrial interaction, impact events, tectonic evolution
Abstract
The paper is focused on the fundamental problem of influence of extraterrestrial factors on the Earth’s geologic and tectonic evolution. Extraterrestrial factors played a decisive role in the Earth’s genesis, the formation of the first Hadean continental crust, and the beginning of the Archean era. Their significant influence persisted in the later epochs: Even in the Phanerozoic, extraterrestrial factors might have had a considerable influence on the environment. The sialic cores of protocontinental crust (4.4-3.9 Ga) with first-generation greenstone zones (3.8-3.2 Ga) and the global system of granite-greenstone belts (3.1-2.7 Ga) formed in the rotation-plume regime, mainly in the subequatorial hot belt. The formation of these global structures was, to a large extent, influenced by asteroid impacts, which caused the impact-triggered genesis of mantle plumes. Dramatic changes in the subsequent geologic history began at 2.7-2.0 Ga; at 2.0 Ga they terminated with the Moon’s transition to an orbit similar to the present-day one (50 ± 3 Earth’s radii), accompanied by the abrupt slowdown of the Earth’s axial rotation, the termination of formation of the layer D″, and the start of recent plate tectonics, which is accompanied by the plume tectonics.
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