Ancient Supercontinents and the Paleogeography of Earth offers a systematic examination of Precambrian cratons and supercontinents. Through detailed maps of drift histories and paleogeography of each continent, this book examines topics related to Earth's tectonic evolution prior to Pangea, including plate kinematics, orogenic development, and paleoenvironments. Additionally, this book discusses the methodologies used, principally paleomagnetism and tectonostratigraphy, and addresses geophysical topics of mantle dynamics and geodynamo evolution over billions of years. Structured clearly with consistent coverage for Precambrian cratons, this book combines state-of-the-art paleomagnetic and geochronologic data to reconstruct the paleogeography of the Earth in the context of major climatic events such as global glaciations. It is an ideal, up-to-date reference for geoscientists and geographers looking for answers to questions surrounding the tectonic evolution of Earth. - Provides robust paleogeographies of Precambrian cratons based on high-quality paleomagnetic and geochronologic data and critically tested by global geological datasets - Includes links to updated databases for the Precambrian such as PALEOMAGIA and the Global Paleomagnetic Database (GPMDB) - Presents full-color maps of the drift histories of each continent as well as their paleogeographies - Discusses key questions regarding continental drift, the supercontinent cycle, and the geomagnetic dipole hypothesis and analyzes palaeography in the context of Earth's holistic evolution

The integration of Tectonics/Geochemistry, up-to-date reviews by leading scientists as well as a broad topical coverage of the Archean, are some of the features of this particular volume. As geochronology has progressed in the last 20 years, the Archean has continued to attract interest. Advancements in the understanding of Archean crustal and mantle evolution have progressed rapidly since the first International Archean Symposium in Western Australia (1970). The landmark for the Archean was the NATO Advanced Study Institute at Leicester (1975). At this meeting the Archean truly "came of age". Investigators from many different disciplines focused their expertise on the early history of the earth. For the first time, the nature of the atmosphere, oceans, and life during the Archean was an important part of an Archean symposium. During the most recent Archean Symposium in Perth in 1990, there was a shift in interest from field and trace element data to the new rapidly evolving high-precision U/Pb geochronology of Archean rocks and to detailed structural studies of both low and high grade Archean terrains. The terrane concept so widely applied to the Phanerozoic was proposed for the Archean Yilgarn Province in Western Australia and is now widely accepted for the Archean (as evident by the articles in this book). Plate tectonics is now widely accepted as the principal process that controls the history of continents and oceans. There are, though, well substantiated differences between Archean and post-Archean rocks that indicate that Archean tectonic regimes must have differed in some respects from modern ones. The question of how and to what degree did Archean plate tectonics differ from modern plate tectonics is treated in many of the chapters of this book. Altogether, the editor has presented a selection of articles that provide a fascinating insight into the latest observations in this field.

This book surveys the history of the Earth and the nature of the processes that controlled its history. Integrating information from many fields, the book focuses on fundamental processes, the geological record, historical topics, and specific areas such as the development of modern ocean basins and the nature of cratonic sedimentary cover sequences.

Archaean Geochemistry 1972 - 1984 The realisation that the continental crust contains well-preserved relics which date as far back as 4/5 of the Earth's age has given a great impetus to the study of early Precambrian terrains. As late as the mid-sixties the Archaean still constituted the 'terra-in cognita' of earth science. High metamorphic grades, poor out crop, and not least a widely assumed obliteration of early crustal records by convective recycling and thermal reworking had com bined to discourage research in this field. Many excellent local studies existed, notably around gold mining centres, but remained unrelated to a broader regional and theoretical understanding. This situation has changed as the consequence of two inter-related factors: (1) advances in isotopic methods and their application to Precambrian rocks, and (2) the recognition that some of the oldest terrains have retained a wealth of primary igneous and sedi mentary textures and even geochemical characteristics.