Evaluation of plume-induced continental crust growth rate in early Earth: Insight from integrated petrological-thermo-mechanical modeling

Abstract

The origin of Earth’s felsic continental crust remains a mystery. The generation of felsic continental crust requires a two-stage partial melting from original mantle sources. There are two hypotheses for the continental crust generation in the early Earth. One is the subduction-related magmatism, e.g., island arcs, which produces intermediate to felsic magma that constitutes the early buoyant continental crust. The other is the magmatism induced by the mantle plume that creates thick basaltic crust and finally the continental crust. However, there is controversy about the origin of plate tectonics, which is an obstacle for simply applying the subduction-induced model in the early Earth. On the other hand, the efficiency of mantle plume-induced continental crust growth remains unknown. In this study, we develop a new numerical model, integrating the petrological-thermo-mechanical model with melt migration and crystallization, to evaluate the efficiency of continental crust production by mantle plumes in Earth’s history. Our results indicate that mantle plumes are considerably more effective for continental crust generation in the hot early Earth than that in the present Earth. The contribution of plume-induced continental crust growth may be greatly promoted by the possible high frequency of mantle plume generation in the early Earth than the present.