Physics
Scientific paper
Jun 1992
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1992natur.357..553d&link_type=abstract
Nature (ISSN 0028-0836), vol. 357, no. 6379, June 18, 1992, p. 553-562. Research supported by Council for Scientific and Industr
Physics
113
Continents, Cratons, Geochronology, Planetary Evolution, Tectonics, Africa, Earth Mantle, Earth Planetary Structure, Lithosphere, Subduction (Geology)
Scientific paper
About 30 percent of the earth is covered by continents, but only about 10 small kernels of these continents - known as Archaean cratons - are continental fragments formed before 2.5 Gyr ago. The Kaapvaal craton of South Africa, which formed and stabilized between 3.7 and 2.7 Gyr ago, is one of the oldest reasonably sized examples of these continental fragments. It consists of a mosaic of subdomains that have been welded together by processes similar to those of modern-day polate tectonics. The earliest subdomains may have owed their origin to the onset of efficient recycling from the earth's hydrosphere into the mantle.
Armstrong Richard A.
de Ronde Cornel E. J.
de Wit Maarten J.
Green Rod W. E.
Hart Rodger J.
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