A crustal life preserver

Article Abstract:

Studies show that the mantle immediately below the continental crust helps the Earth's continental crust survive for about four million years while the oceanic crust sinks back into the mantle in less than two hundred million years. The Archaean continental crust is more than 2.6 billion years old and the mantle below it is melt-depleted as compared to fertile mantles and those beneath the ocean basin. Thus, the continental crust probably aides mantle convection as a top chemical boundary as compared to the upper-thermal boundary layer provided by oceanic plates.

author: Carlson, Richard W.
Geology, Stratigraphic, Stratigraphy, Archean Eon

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Relatively recent construction of the Tien Shan inferred from GPS measurements of present-day crustal deformation rates

Article Abstract:

The inferences, from Global Positioning System measurements, of crustal deformation rates reveal that Tien Shan formation occurred during the past 10 Myr as a result of a rise in horizontal force. A sudden rise in the Tibetan plateau may have been responsible for this increased horizontal force. The Tien Shan developed as a result of rapid shortening and thickening along the margins of the intracontinental belt, occurring after the collision of India with Eurasia.

author: Hamburger, M.W., Abdrakhmatov, K. Ye, Aldazhanov, S.A., Hager, B.H., Herring, T.A., Kalabaev, K.B., Makarov, V.I., Molnar, P., Panasyuk, S.V., Prilepin, M.T., Reilinger, R.E., Sadybakasov, I.S., Souter, B.J., Trapeznikov, Yu. A., Tsurkov, V. Ye., Zubovich, A.V.
Reports, Seismological research, Tien Shan

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Experimental evidence against CO2-promoted deep crustal melting

Article Abstract:

There is experimental evidence to disprove the role of carbon dioxide in the metamorphism and melting of the Earth's crust as reported by Reterson and Neuton. There is no explanation for melt fluxing by carbon dioxide, and for the formation of magnesium and CO2 rich magmas at crustal pressures.

author: Clemens, J.D.
Carbon dioxide, Thermal properties

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subjects list: Earth, Crust (Geology)
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