A unified view of craton evolution motivated by recent deep seismic reflection and refraction results

SUMMARY An attempt is made to integrate recent continental seismic reflection, refraction, and geologic observations into a unified scheme of craton evolution.1 Nascent continental crust of basaltic bulk composition is produced in island arcs. As with oceanic crust, Moho in this setting lies within the magmatic edifice and corresponds to a downward transition from dominantly mafic cumulate rocks above to dominantly ultramafic cumulates below. The petrologic crust/mantle boundary, lying ∼25 per cent deeper in the lithosphere, has no seismic expression, and corresponds to a depositional/magmatic contact between cumulate ultramafic rocks above and residual mantle (ultramafic tectonite) below. Both contacts are presumably extensively disrupted by magmatic injection. 2 Island arcs are amalgamated into continents at collision zones. Delamination of the lower mafic/ultramafic portion of the crust along with the mantle lithosphere during ‘hard’ collisions acts as a mechanical refining process that pushes the bulk crust toward intermediate composition. 3 Subsequent extensional collapse of the overthickened crust together with thermal re‐equilibration of the lithosphere results in ‘youthful’ stable continental crust, which is ∼30 km thick with its top surface awash at sea level and has the bulk composition of andesite. This crust characteristically exhibits extensional features (half grabens) in the upper portion, and is prominently laminated in the lower portion due to the injection of modest amounts of basaltic magma in the form of sills during delamination. The Moho and petrologic base of the crust coincide in this setting and can correspond to either a ductile high‐strain zone or intrusive contact separating mafic/intermediate composition material above from fertile mantle (lherzolite) below. 4 Subsequent ‘cratonization’ is the cumulative effect of episodic injection of the crust by mafic magma at intervals of hundreds of Myr (as manifest by the ubiquitous overlapping dike swarms of the Precambrian shields). This results in net long‐term thickening of the crust by underplating, shifts the bulk crust back toward mafic composition, periodically produces a new deeper Moho and petrologic crust/mantle boundary that do not coincide, and through repeated dike injection disrupts pre‐existing laminated reflectors. The first magmatic injection event ‘sweats out’ the light melting fraction in the pre‐existing andesitic crust, producing voluminous granitic magmatism typified by the great Proterozoic anorogenic granite/rhyolite provinces. Subsequent injection events into refractory crust produce uplift with attendant erosional denudation of supracrustal sequences. The cumulative result is shield‐type crust in which intermediate crustal levels are exposed over wide areas, crustal thickness commonly exceeds 40 km, average crustal velocity is somewhat higher than in younger stable crust, and the crust is commonly complexly reflective/diffractive throughout.