When did plate tectonics begin?
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The plate tectonic paradigm has been the dominant model for understanding the solid Earth for over 40 years. However, although the model is hugely successful, there is still great uncertainty as to when the plate tectonic process began. Two recent papers have highlighted this difficulty by proposing two very different start times for plate tectonics. One model argues that plate tectonic processes took over from an earlier (unspecified) tectonic regime in a hotter, younger Earth at 1.0 Ga, whereas the other proposes a much earlier start at 4.4–4.5 Ga, and within a 100 Ma of planetary accretion. This feature discusses the evidence for the early and late start hypotheses and argues for a middle position in which plate tectonic processes began during the Archaean (>2.5 Ga ago).Hydrosphere
Convergent boundary
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Abstract The plate tectonics revolution was the most significant advance in our understanding of the Earth in the twentieth century, but initially it had little impact on the discipline of geomorphology. Topography and landscape development were not considered to be important phenomena that deserved attention from the broader Earth-science community in the context of the new model of global tectonics. This situation began to change from the 1980s as various technical innovations enabled landscape evolution to be modelled numerically at the regional to subcontinental scales relevant to plate tectonics, and rates of denudation to be quantified over geological timescales. These developments prompted interest amongst Earth scientists from fields such as geophysics, geochemistry and geochronology in understanding the evolution of topography, the role of denudation in influencing patterns of crustal deformation, and the interactions between tectonics and surface processes. This trend was well established by the end of the century, and has become even more significant up to the present. In this chapter I review these developments and illustrate how plate tectonics has been related to landscape development, especially in the context of collisional orogens and passive continental margins. I also demonstrate how technical innovations have been pivotal to the expanding interest in macroscale landscape development in the era of plate tectonics, and to the significant enhancement of the status of the discipline of geomorphology in the Earth sciences over recent decades.
Denudation
Continental drift
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Abundant geological and geophysical data demonstrate tectonic complexities on land far greater than those on the ocean floor. In the oceans, geological features are well explained by plate tectonics. On land, however, plate tectonics is less successful explaining the large and complex Cordilleran chains of the world. Although some of these chains result from classical plate collisions, the origin of others remains enigmatic.
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geodynamics
Geologic record
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The fluctuations in sizes of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres lead to the occurrence of plate movements.The plate tectonics comprise moving tectonics,collision tectonics and within plate tectonics.The hydrocarbon tends to be generated in the plate frontal accretionary zones and hosted in the basins along the collision uplift zones.The shift,collision and within plate intraformational gliding of plates may result in the occurrence of earthquakes.Two seismic zones may be recognized in China: eastern and western seismic zones.
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The drawing out tectonics is the third orogenic model proposed after geosynclinal cycle and plate tectonics. It is a new theory for explaining the structural deformation, mountain building and basin forming processes in continent. In this paper, the basic features of drawing out tectonics are briefly introduced.
Tectonic phase
Pannonian Basin
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The plate tectonic paradigm has been the dominant model for understanding the solid Earth for over 40 years. However, although the model is hugely successful, there is still great uncertainty as to when the plate tectonic process began. Two recent papers have highlighted this difficulty by proposing two very different start times for plate tectonics. One model argues that plate tectonic processes took over from an earlier (unspecified) tectonic regime in a hotter, younger Earth at 1.0 Ga, whereas the other proposes a much earlier start at 4.4–4.5 Ga, and within a 100 Ma of planetary accretion. This feature discusses the evidence for the early and late start hypotheses and argues for a middle position in which plate tectonic processes began during the Archaean (>2.5 Ga ago).
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Oceanic basin
Geologic record
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