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 …

Supercontinents signify self-organization in plate tectonics. Over the past~ 2 billion years,
three major supercontinents have been identified, with increasing age: Pangaea, Rodinia …

The Earth is the only known planet where plate tectonics is active, and different studies have
concluded that plate tectonics commenced at times from the early Hadean to 700 Ma. Many …

The secular trend of seawater strontium isotope ratio (87 Sr/86 Sr) reflects changes in the
relative contributions of continental versus mantle reservoirs to ocean composition, and …

The strong resilience of the mineral zircon and its ability to host a wealth of isotopic
information make it the best deep-time archive of Earth's continental crust. Zircon is found in …

From the scant Hadean records of the Jack Hills to Cenozoic supervolcanoes, the
continental crust provides a synoptic view deep into Earth history. However, the information …

Earth's middle age, extending from 1.7 to 0.75 Ga, was characterized by environmental,
evolutionary, and lithospheric stability that contrasts with the dramatic changes in preceding …

The Great Unconformity, a profound gap in Earth's stratigraphic record often evident below
the base of the Cambrian system, has remained among the most enigmatic field …

Supercontinent Pangea was preceded by the formation of Gondwana, a “megacontinent”
about half the size of Pangea. There is much debate, however, over what role the assembly …

Geological, geochronological and isotopic data are integrated in order to present a revised
model for the Neoproterozoic evolution of Western Gondwana. Although the classical …