Understanding of secular evolution of the Earth system is based largely on the rock and
mineral archive preserved in the continental lithosphere. Based on the frequency and range …

The atmosphere of the Archean eon—one-third of Earth's history—is important for
understanding the evolution of our planet and Earth-like exoplanets. New geological proxies …

The Earth as a planetary system has experienced significant change since its formation c.
4.54 Gyr ago. Some of these changes have been gradual, such as secular cooling of the …

Diamond is not a common rock-forming mineral (an exception being “diamondite”; see
Jacob and Mikhail 2022, this volume) nor a common crustal mineral (the exceptions being …

Kimberlite magmatism has occurred in cratonic regions on every continent. The global age
distribution suggests that this form of mantle melting has been more prominent after 1.2 Ga …

Volatile elements (water, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, halogens, and noble gases) played an
essential role in the secular evolution of the solid Earth and emergence of life. Here we …

This chapter is devoted to the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope compositions of terrestrial
diamonds with a strong focus on monocrystalline diamonds formed in Earth's mantle. The …

Plate tectonics was originally established as a kinematic theory of global tectonics, in which
the Earth's rigid outer layer, the lithosphere, consists of different size plates that move …

How the Earth stayed warm several billion years ago when the Sun was considerably fainter
is the long-standing problem of the 'faint young Sun paradox'. Because of negligible O2 and …

Plate tectonics describes the horizontal motion of rigid lithospheric plates away from
midoceanic ridges and parallel to transforms, towards deep-sea trenches, where the …