Fig. 6: Co-evolution of the continental lithospheric mantle (CLM, this work) and the Earth’s crust as expressed by three proxies: granites, bulk shales⁵⁷, and zircons⁶⁷.

Note change in δ¹⁸O scale. Inset shows mass balance of CLM and crust during growth and evolution; 1:10 and 1:20 are assumed crust/CLM proportions based on the modern average lithospheric thickness of 150 km. BSE is estimated in this work and corresponds to the starting point of crustal growth after the Giant Impact. Unidirectional temporal loss of low-δ¹⁸O to the large reservoir of CLM helps to explain the accumulation of heavy δ¹⁸O in the crust and potentially hydrosphere (e.g., 57–60).