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The evolution of Earth’s early continental crust

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 6, pages 612–625 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Continental crust is fundamental to planetary habitability, providing the geochemical reservoirs and physical interfaces that drive and regulate exchanges among the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. However, the evolution of Earth’s crust is uncertain owing to debate regarding the competing roles of internal versus external energetic drivers. In this Review, we examine the interplay between internal and external drivers of the production, modification and destruction of crust on the early Earth using geochemical, geological and geophysical data. Internal drivers are potentially linked to plate tectonics and processes such as subduction (dripping) or delamination. External drivers from large meteorite impacts likely influenced crust formation by inducing rapid decompression melting of the mantle to form basaltic protocratons, the early, mantle-derived crustal nuclei that preceded stable continental crust. On a planet covered by water, protocratons might have been transformed by intracrustal differentiation into evolved (continental) crust. Future research into the processes driving Earth’s early evolution and habitability should consider a wide range of temporal and spatial scales from seconds to millions of years and the subgrain to the galactic, to uncover the long-wavelength patterns, in mantle overturn rates and impact flux preserved in deep-time records.

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Fig. 1: The formation of the galaxy, the Solar System, the Earth and the Moon.
Fig. 2: Geological time series and derived models explaining crustal evolution.
Fig. 3: Styles of Archaean and early Earth crustal foundering.
Fig. 4: Temporal and spatial challenges in interpreting Earth’s early geological record.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Timescales of Mineral Systems Group at Curtin University for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Timescales of Mineral Systems Group, School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Christopher L. Kirkland, Tim E. Johnson & Hugh Smithies

  2. Laboratory for Crustal Petrology, Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Michael Brown

  3. Geological Survey of Western Australia, Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Hugh Smithies

  4. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Nadja Drabon

  5. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Craig O’Neill

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  1. Christopher L. Kirkland
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  4. Hugh Smithies
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  5. Nadja Drabon
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  6. Craig O’Neill
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Correspondence to Christopher L. Kirkland.

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Glossary

Density waves

In astrophysics, density waves are spiral-shaped regions of enhanced mass density that move through the disk of a galaxy, like the Milky Way, at a different speed than individual stars or gas clouds.

Endogenic

Internal processes, which are powered primarily by the planet’s internal heat from both residual accretionary energy and ongoing radiogenic decay, drive crust production and modification on Earth, including mantle melting, subduction and crustal recycling.

Enriched, ‘arc-like’ mantle sources

A mantle domain whose composition has been modified by the addition of fluids or crustal components, often via subduction, or by melt extraction and subsequent re-fertilization, producing geochemical signatures resembling those of volcanic arc settings (for example, enriched large ion lithophile elements, light rare-earth elements and distinctive isotopic ratios).

Exogenic

External processes influence crust production and surface evolution, such as large meteorite impacts, and can trigger melting, surface modification and crustal reworking, particularly during the early history of the Earth.

Non-uniformitarian

Refers to processes or events in Earth’s history that do not have direct modern analogues, such as more frequent large impacts, higher mantle temperatures or tectonic regimes unlike modern plate tectonics and therefore require different explanatory frameworks.

Preservation effect

A geological bias arising when certain rock types, structures or metamorphic conditions are less likely to survive over time owing to erosion, overprinting or tectonic recycling, meaning the absence of specific features in the record may reflect poor preservation rather than true absence in the past.

Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities

A physical process that occurs when denser material overlies less dense material under the influence of gravity, causing the denser material to sink and the lighter material to rise. In geology, this can describe the dripping or delamination of dense lower crust or lithospheric mantle into the underlying asthenosphere, influencing mantle convection and crustal recycling.

Uniformitarian

The principle that the physical, chemical and biological processes operating today also operated in the past, meaning present-day processes can be used to interpret the geological record.

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Kirkland, C.L., Johnson, T.E., Brown, M. et al. The evolution of Earth’s early continental crust. Nat Rev Earth Environ 6, 612–625 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-025-00706-6

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