Precambrian geology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Copper isotopes in rifted alkaline rocks indicate that since the Neoproterozoic, cratonic mantle roots have been oxidized from metal-saturated environments with volatile CH4 and H2O to environments of stabilized CO2 and H2O and destabilized metals.

    • Chunfei Chen
    • , Stephen F. Foley
    •  & Yongsheng Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Earth’s early continental crust formed by the melting of plagioclase-cumulates. Melting of these rocks, and subsequent crustal delamination and remelting, can explain the growth and differentiation of the continental crust during the Archaean.

    • Matthijs A. Smit
    • , Kira A. Musiyachenko
    •  & Jeroen Goumans

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Geochemical analysis indicates a formational regime for Jack Hills zircons that is lithologically diverse and chemically similar to modern arcs. This depicts complicated geodynamics of the early Earth, which is currently proposed by many as stagnant-lid.

    • Wriju Chowdhury
    • , Dustin Trail
    •  & Paul Savage

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The basalt V-Ti redox proxy indicates that both of the Archean ambient and modified mantle exhibit a ~1.0 log unit increase in their evolution for most cratons, possibly derived by widespread crustal recycling.

    • Lei Gao
    • , Shuwen Liu
    •  & Yalu Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Variable dominance of distinct microbial communities during the late Ediacaran, recorded in C and N cycles perturbations and in Raman structural heterogeneities of organic matter, modulated the recovery from the most negative δ13Ccarb excursion in Earth’s history.

    • Fuencisla Cañadas
    • , Dominic Papineau
    •  & Chao Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How far back in time plate tectonics operated on Earth is debated because of a paucity of geological evidence for horizontal plate motions. Here the authors show that plates moved laterally by >3500 kilometres 2.7–2.5 billion years ago, demonstrating plate tectonics in the Archean Eon, when life developed on Earth.

    • Yating Zhong
    • , Timothy Kusky
    •  & Hao Deng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Constraining the thermal state of the lithosphere is crucial to understanding geodynamic regime in early Earth. Here the authors reconstruct ~2.9–2.5 Ga thermal structure of continental lithosphere of the North China Craton using TTG and propose a systematic Archean geodynamic evolution process.

    • Guozheng Sun
    • , Shuwen Liu
    •  & Fangyang Hu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Why Earth’s crust only started becoming widely preserved in the Eoarchaean, 500 Ma after planetary accretion, is poorly understood. Here, the authors document a shift to juvenile magmatic sources in the early Eoarchaean, linking crustal preservation to the formation of stabilising melt-depleted mantle.

    • Jacob A. Mulder
    • , Oliver Nebel
    •  & Timothy J. Ivanic

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tectonomagmatic conditions in the Precambrian were hypothesized to be unfavorable for porphyry Cu deposit formation. Here, the authors show that metallogenic processes typify Phanerozoic porphyry Cu deposits operated by ~1.88 Ga, reflecting modification of mantle lithosphere by oxidized slab-derived fluids at that time.

    • Xuyang Meng
    • , Jackie M. Kleinsasser
    •  & Richard A. Stern

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The nature and evolution of Earth’s crust during the Hadean and Eoarchean is largely unknown due to the lack of preserved material from this period. Here, the authors document a period of crustal rejuvenation between 3.2 and 3.0 Ga, coincident with peak mantle potential temperatures that imply greater degrees of mantle melting and injection of hot mafic-ultramafic magmas into older Hadean-to-Eoarchean felsic crust at this time.

    • C. L. Kirkland
    • , M. I. H. Hartnady
    •  & J. A. Hollis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The early Earth’s atmosphere had very low oxygen levels for hundreds of millions of years, until the 2.4 Ga Great Oxidation Event, which remains poorly understood. Here, the authors show that reducing Archean volcanic gases could have prevented atmospheric O2 from accumulating, and therefore mantle oxidation was likely very important in setting the evolution of O2 and aerobic life.

    • Shintaro Kadoya
    • , David C. Catling
    •  & Ariel D. Anbar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The concentration of Ni and Cr of the continental crust cannot be explained by formation models involving differentiated magmatic rocks. Here, the authors show that hydrothermal alteration and chemical weathering of ultramafic rock compensates for the low Ni and Cr concentrations of island arc-type magmatic rocks.

    • Andreas Beinlich
    • , Håkon Austrheim
    •  & Andrew Putnis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The supercontinent Rodinia has been hypothesised to have formed in a different manner from other supercontinents. Here, the authors report geochemical and mineralogical evidence for prevalence of non-arc magmatism and enhanced erosion of volcanic arcs and orogens during Rodinian assembly.

    • Chao Liu
    • , Andrew H. Knoll
    •  & Robert M. Hazen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It has been previously assumed that deep river channels could not have developed in the Proterozoic due to lack of vegetation. Here, the authors present remote sensing and outcrop data to show that large scale and deeply channelled river networks did exist in the Proterozoic despite the absence of vegetation.

    • Alessandro Ielpi
    • , Robert H. Rainbird
    •  & Massimiliano Ghinassi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some of the earliest life on Earth flourished in terrestrial hot springs. Here, the authors present evidence for ca. 3.5 Ga hot spring deposits from the Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Australia, that host some of the earliest known life in the form of stromatolites and other microbial biosignatures.

    • Tara Djokic
    • , Martin J. Van Kranendonk
    •  & Colin R. Ward

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precambrian rocks host a deep hydrosphere, but where dissolved sulfate, crucial for microbial life, comes from is unclear. At 2.4 km depth in the Canadian shield, Li et al. find that oxidation of sulfides in the host rocks creates sulfate thus providing a long-term mechanism for the deep biosphere sulfate.

    • L. Li
    • , B. A. Wing
    •  & B. Sherwood Lollar

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