Birth of Earth's continents: New research points to crust stacking, rather than upwelling of hot material

Birth of Earth's continents: New research points to crust stacking, rather than upwelling of hot material

The analysis, published this month in Nature Geoscience, indicates that the nuclei of Earth's continents formed as a byproduct of mountain-building processes, by stacking up slabs of relatively cold oceanic crust. This process created thick, strong 'keels' in Earth's mantle that supported the overlying crust and enabled continents to form.

The scientific clues leading to this conclusion derived from computer simulations of the slow cooling process of continents, combined with analysis of the distribution of diamonds in the deep Earth.

The Department of Geoscience's Professor David Eaton developed computer software to enable numerical simulation of the slow diffusive cooling of Earth's mantle over a time span of billions of years.

Working in collaboration with former graduate student, Assistant Professor Claire Perry from the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Eaton relied on the geological record of diamonds found in Africa to validate his innovative computer simulations.

"For the first time, we are able to quantify the thermal evolution of a realistic 3D Earth model spanning billions of years from the time continents were formed," states Perry.

Mantle plumes consist of an upwelling of hot material within Earth's mantle. Plumes are thought to be the cause of some volcanic centres, especially those that form a linear volcanic chain like Hawaii. Diamonds, which are generally limited to the deepest and oldest parts of the continental mantle, provide a wealth of information on how the host mantle region may have formed.

"Ancient mantle keels are relatively strong, cold and sometimes diamond-bearing material. They are known to extend to depths of 200 kilometres or more beneath the ancient core regions of continents," explains Professor David Eaton. "These mantle keels resisted tectonic recycling into the deep mantle, allowing the preservation of continents over geological time and providing suitable environments for the development of the terrestrial biosphere."

His method takes into account important factors such as dwindling contribution of natural radioactivity to the heat budget, and allows for the calculation of other properties that strongly influence mantle evolution, such as bulk density and rheology (mechanical strength).

"Our computer model emerged from a multi-disciplinary approach combining classical physics, mathematics and computer science," explains Eaton. "By combining those disciplines, we were able to tackle a fundamental geoscientific problem, which may open new doors for future research."

This work provides significant new scientific insights into the formation and evolution of continents on Earth.

Welcome to SUV System Ltd!

SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences.

We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our years of professional service.

SUV System Ltd is Electronic Components Distributor Supplies,Find Quality Electronic Components Supplies Products IC(Integrated Circuits),Connectors,Capacitor,Resistors,Diodes,Transistors,LED at Suvsystem.com. Sourcing Other Energy, Environment, Excess Inventory Products from Manufacturers and Suppliers at Suvsystem.com

Electronic Components distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com

Connectors Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Connectors-1.html

IC Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/IC(Integrated-Circuits)-1.html

LED Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/LED-1.html

Capacitor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Capacitor-1.html

Transistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Transistors-1.html

Resistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Resistors-1.html

Diode Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Diodes-1.html

SUV System Ltd insists on the managing faith ofsincereness,speciality,foresight, win-win,so we build up stable-relationship customers located all over the world, including the States, Europe, Argentina, UAE, Malaysia, Australia,and India etc

we are focus on the following fields,and hope we can help you.

Electronic News LINEAR IC Transistors LITTELFUSE Diodes INTERSIL IC FAIRCHILD diodes components Capacitor Diodes Schottky Diodes ON Transistors MOTOROLA IC Military IC Switching Diodes AD IC NEC Transistors AVX Resistors Chip Inductors HARRIS IC VISHAY IC TOSHIBA Diodes Current Sensors Resistors Metal Can Packages Transistors Connectors LED Low Ohmic Resistors IR transistor NXP Transistors Atmel IC TDK IC ST Diodes Transistors Freescale IC(Integrated Circuits) Fleld Effect Transistors Cypress IC Multi-units Transistors NEC Diodes Chip Ferrite Beads IDT IC Resistor Networks
http://www.suvsystem.com/a/5926.aspx