ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2026
Tectonism rather than "snowball Earth" glaciation is responsible for the Great Unconformity.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- A reset clock cannot keep time: Thermal overprinting obscures Great Unconformity origins in North China.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Reply to McDannell et al.: Thermal overprinting does not obscure the tectonic origin of the Great Unconformity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
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12 authors.
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Abstract
The Great Unconformity (GUn)-a widely recognized discontinuity and associated gap in the rock record between Precambrian and Cambrian rocks-represents a globally important interval of continental exposure and erosion that is notable also for the first appearance of all major animal phyla on Earth. However, its origin remains the subject of vigorous debate. Here, we present field relationships, and zircon and monazite U-Pb, biotite and muscovite Rb-Sr, and zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronology data for Precambrian crystalline basement rocks from North China to constrain the exhumation history below the unconformity. Dates from multichronometers and thermal history inversions show that the most substantial cooling of continental basement took place from ~2,100 to 1,600 Ma. Comparison with thermal history data from Laurentia, Baltica, and Amazonia suggests that protracted plate tectonics broadly modulated by supercontinent cycles, and not "snowball Earth" glaciation, is responsible for crustal exhumation below the unconformity. The most pronounced erosion evident in both the thermochronologic record and geochemical indicators of continental weathering is shown to correspond with development of Earth's first true supercontinent (Columbia), rather than with either the Cambrian explosion or the emergence of modern plate tectonics.
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