Structure and Evolution of Continents and their Margins: A Global Synthesis

The Earth’s crust preserves the record of the evolution of our planet, provides our natural resources, and presents social challenges in the form of natural hazards, such as earthquakes and volcanoes. Here I summarize the key accomplishments of the 100 years of research (with a focus on recent results), and highlight the remaining outstanding problems in crustal evolution. The Earth’s crust has profound implications for all aspects of the planet’s physical state and evolution. The process of crustal formation led to the complementary formation of an underlying mantle lithosphere. The physical properties of the crust plus mantle lithosphere (oceanic and continental) modulates the rate at which heat is released to the Earth’s surface, regulates mantle convection, and more generally defines the rules for plate tectonic processes. Geological, geochemical and geophysical studies define crustal properties. Here I discuss the key processes that have dominated the evolution of the Earth’s crust and sub-crustal lithosphere as inferred from a new synthesis of global seismic data for the crust.