Why does Earth have plate tectonics and what was before?

The Earth is the only planet in our Solar System with active plate tectonics. Answering questions such as why plate tectonics started on Earth and which tectonic regime came before are fundamentally important for understanding the evolution of the early Earth. Currently, the most popular answers are (i) before plate tectonics on Earth, there was stagnant lid or plutonic-squishy-lid tectonic regime with no or minor contribution of subduction; (ii) plate tectonics took over when the initially high mantle temperature on Earth dropped by 100-200K due to secular cooling. In this work, we challenge both these statements based on published and new data and models.

Plenty of observations suggest that plate tectonics started on Earth during mid-Archean. At the same time, the numerical models and petrological data on the thermal evolution of the Earth show that mid-Archean was likely the time of the highest temperature of the Earth’s mantle and that significant secular cooling took place later in the Proterozoic. Moreover, previously published and our new thermochemical models also suggest that among all proposed tectonic regimes, only mobile-lid regime (i.e. plate tectonics) can lead to significant cooling of the Earth. Therefore, we conclude that plate tectonics in mid- or early Archean was unlikely to be initiated due to the significant secular cooling of the Earth’s mantle. The existence of no-subduction regimes, such as stagnant-lid or plutonic-squishy-lid, prior to plate tectonics are challenged by the new geochemical data which suggest extensive subduction and continental crust production already in the Hadean and early Archean.

Here we present global geodynamic models of Earth’s evolution computed using StagYY and ASPECT codes in 2D spherical annulus and 3D geometries respectively. StagYY models suggest that during the Hadean and the early Archean, the tectonic regime was oscillating between plume-induced subduction and plutonic-squishy-lid. The mantle temperature remains high during this time, but significant amount of continental crust is produced in these models, which is in agreement with the new geochemical data (melt inclusions from Weltevreden komatiites). After the emergence of continents in the mid- to late Archean, we decrease the effective friction of the oceanic lithosphere in the models to mimic the lubricating effect of continental sediments in subduction channels. This leads to a transition of the tectonic regime from oscillatory to continuous mobile-lid and to an efficient secular cooling of Earth, which is consistent with petrological observations. Being 2D, all plume-induced subduction zones in StagYY models are global. With the preliminary 3D ASPECT models, we show how a number of plume-induced regional subduction zones in early Earth evolve into a global network of plate boundaries and result in plate tectonics.