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    The supercontinent cycle

    90414.pdf (3.979Mb)
    Access Status
    Open access
    Authors
    Mitchell, R.N.
    Zhang, Nan
    Salminen, J.
    Liu, Yebo
    Spencer, Christopher
    Steinberger, B.
    Murphy, J.B.
    Li, Zheng-Xiang
    Date
    2021
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Mitchell, R.N. and Zhang, N. and Salminen, J. and Liu, Y. and Spencer, C.J. and Steinberger, B. and Murphy, J.B. et al. 2021. The supercontinent cycle. Nature Reviews Earth and Environment. 2 (5): pp. 358-374.
    Source Title
    Nature Reviews Earth and Environment
    DOI
    10.1038/s43017-021-00160-0
    Additional URLs
    https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/335509
    Faculty
    Faculty of Science and Engineering
    School
    School of Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS)
    Funding and Sponsorship
    http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/FL150100133
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/90590
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Supercontinents signify self-organization in plate tectonics. Over the past ~2 billion years, three major supercontinents have been identified, with increasing age: Pangaea, Rodinia and Columbia. In a prototypal form, a cyclic pattern of continental assembly and breakup likely extends back to ~3 billion years ago, albeit on the smaller scale of Archaean supercratons, which, unlike global supercontinents, were tectonically segregated. In this Review, we discuss how the emergence of supercontinents provides a minimum age for the onset of the modern global plate tectonic network, whereas Archaean supercratons might reflect an earlier geodynamic and nascent tectonic regime. The assembly and breakup of Pangaea attests that the supercontinent cycle is intimately linked with whole-mantle convection. The supercontinent cycle is, consequently, interpreted as both an effect and a cause of mantle convection, emphasizing the importance of both top-down and bottom-up geodynamics, and the coupling between them. However, the nature of this coupling and how it has evolved remains controversial, resulting in contrasting models of supercontinent formation, which can be tested by quantitative geodynamic modelling and geochemical proxies. Specifically, which oceans close to create a supercontinent, and how such predictions are linked to mantle convection, are directions for future research.

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