ArticleNature2019
Surface erosion events controlled the evolution of plate tectonics on Earth.
Article in Nature, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed.
- Secular change in orogenic duration reveals alternating tectonic regimes during the Archaean-Proterozoic.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Tectonism rather than "snowball Earth" glaciation is responsible for the Great Unconformity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Water-induced mantle overturn explains high Archean paleointensities.National science review · 2026Article
- Dissecting the puzzle of tectonic lid regimes in terrestrial planets.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Long-term history of continental weathering and particle transport to the sea.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A global scale submarine landform dataset driven by terrain knowledge.Scientific data · 2025Article
- Earth's magnetic field and its relationship to the origin of life, evolution and planetary habitability.National science review · 2025Review
- Growth of continental crust and lithosphere subduction in the Hadean revealed by geochemistry and geodynamics.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Silicon isotopic signatures of granitoids support increased weathering of subaerial land 3.7 billion years ago.Communications earth & environment · 2025Article
- Hematite U-Pb dating of Snowball Earth meltwater events.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Article
- Global mantle perturbations following the onset of modern plate tectonics.Science advances · 2024Article
- Light δD apatites reveal deep origin water in North China Craton intracontinental granites and basalts.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The effects of local variations in conditions on carbon storage and release in the continental mantle.National science review · 2024Review
- The importance of continents, oceans and plate tectonics for the evolution of complex life: implications for finding extraterrestrial civilizations.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Changes in orogenic style and surface environment recorded in Paleoproterozoic foreland successions.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Coexisting divergent and convergent plate boundary assemblages indicate plate tectonics in the Neoarchean.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Earth's anomalous middle-age magmatism driven by plate slowdown.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Mariana-type ophiolites constrain the establishment of modern plate tectonic regime during Gondwana assembly.Nature communications · 2021Article
- Geochemical evidence for a widespread mantle re-enrichment 3.2 billion years ago: implications for global-scale plate tectonics.Scientific reports · 2020Article
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2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Plate tectonics is among the most important geological processes on Earth, but its emergence and evolution remain unclear. Here we extrapolate models of present-day plate tectonics to the past and propose that since about three billion years ago the rise of continents and the accumulation of sediments at continental edges and in trenches has provided lubrication for the stabilization of subduction and has been crucial in the development of plate tectonics on Earth. We conclude that the two largest surface erosion and subduction lubrication events occurred after the Palaeoproterozoic Huronian global glaciations (2.45 to 2.2 billion years ago), leading to the formation of the Columbia supercontinent, and after the Neoproterozoic 'snowball' Earth glaciations (0.75 to 0.63 billion years ago). The snowball Earth event followed the 'boring billion'-a period of reduced plate tectonic activity about 1.75 to 0.75 billion years ago that was probably caused by a shortfall of sediments in trenches-and it kick-started the modern episode of active plate tectonics.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.