Geodynamics of the early Earth: Quest for the missing paradigm

In contrast to modern-day plate tectonics, geodynamics of the early Earth presents a unique challenge, as currently there is no consensus on a global paradigm concerning the mantle dynamics and lithosphere tectonics in the Precambrian (Benn et al., 2006; Gerya, 2014). This challenge is mainly due to the severe objective restrictions of obtaining geological and/or geophysical observations constraining Earth’s surface and interior dynamics back in geological time (Fig. 1). The subject of geodynamics can be schematically represented by the time-depth diagram (see Fig. 1) covering the entire Earth’s history and interior. In theory, the entire diagram should be “covered” by data points characterizing the physical-chemical state of Earth at different depths, for different moments in geological time. However, in practice, observations are only available along two axes: (1) geophysical data for Earth’s internal structure at all ranges of depths, but only for the very short present-day time, and (2) the geological record preserved in rocks formed over a broad range of geological times, but only at a very shallow depth range. As a result, the importance of well-constrained geological and geophysical data, and thoroughly studied present-day geodynamic regime (modern-style plate tectonics) is almost unavoidably exaggerated and “stretched” toward the Precambrian Earth. This “plate tectonics trap” can only be avoided by further calibrating our geological intuition on the basis of numerical geodynamic modeling that integrates available geological, geochemical, petrological, and geochronological records (Gerya, 2014). An emerging holistic view of the evolution of early Earth geodynamics (e.g., Gerya, 2014; Sobolev and Brown, 2019) can be summarized as follows (Fig. 1):