Tag Archives: Continental Crust

A sample of granite from Victoria, Australia, featuring prominent alkali and plagioclase feldspar minerals (in pinkish-red and gray colors, respectively), along with quartz (shiny) and black mica.
1747: Feldspar – The Backbone of Continental Crust

Feldspar, constituting a major part of the Earth's continental crust, is a framework silicate mineral rich in silicon, oxygen, and elements like calcium, potassium, and sodium. First named by Johan Gottschalk Wallerius in 1747, feldspar's [...]

This image shows a glacially smoothed section of Archean greenstone, originally basaltic pillow lava, from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, spanning approximately 10 feet (3 meters) across.
c. 3.5 Billion BCE: Unraveling the Mysteries of Greenstone Belts

Explores greenstone belts, key geological features from the Archean eon, highlighting their role in the growth of continental crust and their significance in understanding Earth's early history.

This image shows the San Andreas fault in southern California, a well-known boundary between two of Earth's lithospheric plates: the Pacific and North American plates.
c. 4-3 Billion BCE: The Rise of Plate Tectonics – Shaping Earth’s Landscape

Examines the emergence of plate tectonics during the Hadean and Archean eons, detailing the transformation of Earth's crust and mantle, the formation of continents, and the division of the lithosphere and asthenosphere, leading to the [...]

This image shows fractured and metamorphosed remains of ancient continental crust along the eastern shores of Hudson Bay, in the Canadian craton. These rocks originated from the remelting of basaltic rocks that first erupted during the Hadean era.
c. 4.5 Billion BCE: The Formation of Continental Crust – A Geological Journey

Explores the transformation from mafic basalts to felsic rocks in the Earth's crust, guided by Norman L. Bowen's 1928 discovery of Bowen's Reaction Series. It explains how this process led to the formation of Earth's [...]