An Exhumation History of Continents over Billion-Year Time Scales
The continental lithosphere contains the oldest and most stable structures on Earth, where fragments of ancient material have eluded destruction by tectonic and surface processes operating over billions of years. Although present-day erosion of these remnants is slow, a record of how they have uplif...
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Published in | Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 335; no. 6064; pp. 73 - 76 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Washington, DC
American Association for the Advancement of Science
06.01.2012
The American Association for the Advancement of Science |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The continental lithosphere contains the oldest and most stable structures on Earth, where fragments of ancient material have eluded destruction by tectonic and surface processes operating over billions of years. Although present-day erosion of these remnants is slow, a record of how they have uplifted, eroded, and cooled over Earth's history can provide insight into the physical properties of the continents and the forces operating to exhume them over geologic time. We constructed a continuous record of ancient lithosphère cooling with the use of uranium-lead (U-Pb) thermochronology on volcanically exhumed lower crustal fragments. Combining these measurements with thermal and Pb-diffusion models constrains the range of possible erosion histories. Measured U-Pb data are consistent with extremely low erosion rates persisting over time scales approaching the age of the continents themselves. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 0036-8075 1095-9203 |
DOI: | 10.1126/science.1213496 |