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From mineral inclusions in zircon to continents: An in situ isotopic perspective on the evolution of the continental crust, the onset of plate tectonics and the development of a habitable Earth

Project description

A closer look at crustal evolution and the onset of plate tectonics

Zircon, the oldest mineral on Earth, lies at the core of a large number of studies on the evolution of our planet. At issue, our knowledge has remained restricted to the geochemical information that is preserved within the different growth domains that can be identified in zircon crystals. The EU-funded MILESTONE project will push the limits of current knowledge to a different scale analytically, to the scale of 10-20µm mineral inclusions of apatite and feldspar encapsulated within zircons. The integrated geochemical analysis of zircons and their inclusions, for thousands of zircons of different ages and provenance, will be used to date the onset of plate tectonics, as well as to develop a global model of continental crust evolution from the Hadean (i.e. >4 Ga) to the present, in which the Earth has progressively, or more suddenly, become a habitable planet.

Objective

The continental crust is the principal record of conditions on Earth during the past 4.4 billion years, yet how it formed and evolved through time remains unresolved. Zircon lies at the core of crustal evolution studies, and yet our knowledge has remained restricted to the geochemical information that can be extracted from this mineral with current techniques. This CoG moves the debate to a different scale analytically, to the scale of mineral inclusions encapsulated within zircons. A key motivation is the recent analytical breakthrough in the microanalysis of minute samples, which was achieved by the PI and the team he led at the University of Bristol, using state-of-the-art instruments similar to those now available at the PI’s host laboratory.

The integrated analysis of Sr and Pb isotopes of mineral inclusions, along with the trace elements, U-Pb, Hf and O isotopes analysis of their host zircons, for over 5000 zircons of different ages and provenance, will provide new and different information to that available from the 'zircon only' record – ultimately to i) probe the inferred transition from intraplate- to subduction-related magmatism associated with the onset of plate tectonics; ii) date this transition and its duration precisely in different places; iii) develop a global model of continental crust evolution from the Hadean (i.e. >4 Ga) to the Present, in which the Earth has progressively, or more suddenly, become a habitable planet. These goals will be achieved through:

1. Building a worldwide collection of inclusion-bearing zircons with a range of ages and provenance (WP1).

2. Evaluating changes in the degree of differentiation of the newly generated continental crust through time, using the Sr isotope record of apatite inclusions (WP2).

3. Addressing changes in the tectonic settings of new crust formation, using the Pb isotope record of feldspar inclusions (WP3).

4. Modelling the variation in the new crust thickness through space and time (WP4).

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Keywords

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2018-COG

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Host institution

CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE CNRS
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 999 500,00
Address
RUE MICHEL ANGE 3
75794 PARIS
France

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Region
Ile-de-France Ile-de-France Hauts-de-Seine
Activity type
Research Organisations
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 999 500,00

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