How do continents form: The Wyoming craton example

Have you ever wondered how the oldest continents formed? A new paper in the January 2023 issue of GSA Today looks at the story preserved in the oldest rocks on Earth. All continents contain some crust that is 2.5 billion years or older, way back in the Archean eon. These areas of old continental crust are known as cratons.

Link to the article:

https://www.geosociety.org/GSA/Public...

Written by: Carol Frost, Susan Swapp, RJ Stern
Host: Ali Sealander
Video Editor: Zach Clowdus

Funding provided by NSF grant EAR-20242243 (PIs Carol Frost and Susan Swapp)

References

Featured paper:
Frost, C.D., Mueller, P.A., Mogk, D.W., Frost, B.R., and Henry, D.J., 2023, Creating continents: Archean cratons tell the story. GSA Today, v. 33 no. 1, p. 4-10, doi: 10.1130/GSATG541A.1

Other related references:
Bedrosian, P.A., and Frost, C.D., 2022, Geophysical extent of the Wyoming Province: Insights into ancient subduction and craton stability. GSA Bulletin, 18 p., doi:10.1130/B36417.1

Bedle, H., Cooper, C.M., and Frost, C.D., 2021, Nature versus nurture: preservation and destruction of Archean cratons. Tectonics, 40, e2021TC006714. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021TC006714.

Carlson, R.W., Garcon, M., O’Neil, J., Reimink, J., and Rizo, H., 2019, The nature of Earth’s first crust: Chemical Geology, v. 530, 119321, https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2019.119321.

Pearson, D.G., Scott, J.M., Liu, J., Schaeffer, A., Wang, L.H., von Hunen, J., Szilas, K., Chacko, T., and Keleman, P.B., 2021, Deep continental roots and cratons: Nature, v. 596, p. 199–210, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03....

Music: John Utah - A Walk on the Mile form Epidemic Sound
https://www.epidemicsound.com/track/z...

Image/figure credits (in order of appearance)

Subduction zone model modified from Force takes control in mountain-height debate (fig 1), by K. Wang (2020)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...

Global distribution of Archean cratons modified from Nature Versus Nurture: Preservation and Destruction of Archean Cratons by Bedle et al. (2021)
https://agupubs-onlinelibrary-wiley-c...

Cathedral Peaks, Teton Range Wyoming. View from South Teton, looking north to Middle Teton and Grand Teton

Gabbro
James St. John, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Diorite
Amcyrus2012, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Granite
Eurico Zimbres, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Fremont Peak, Wind River Mountains, on the skyline with Neoarchean granite of the continental magmatic arc in the foreground.

Cirque of the Towers, southern Wind River Range. Pingora Peak, right, with Lonesome Lake in the foreground. The Neoarchean granodiorite composing the outcrops are part of the continental magmatic arc

Andes
Public domain (NASA)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...

Himalayas – collision zone from Large salt accumulations as a consequence of hydrothermal processes associated with ‘Wilson cycles’: A review, Part 2: Application of a new salt-forming model on selected cases, by M. Hovland et al. (2018)
https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

(Modified from illustration by Sonja Leyva, Pasadena City College, see http://geophile.net/Lessons/PlateTect...)

Earth through time
https://media.hhmi.org/biointeractive...

Tetons Mountain Range photo by Charles Nye

Low-grade side of the Teton continent-continent collision (image at top right corner at 5:04). The mountain is called Eagle’s Rest.

Shale image
James St. John, CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/..., via Wikimedia Commons

Accreted terranes figure
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/geology/...

Image at 5:48 shows the Miners Delight graywacke in the foreground. The view is WNW towards the Roundtop Mountain metabasalt on the other side of the near valley with green trees. The Wind River Mountains are in the background. This photo is by Mike Meredith (MS student).

Tectonic scenario diagrams illustrating the two main ideas for the geodynamic sites of TTG generation:
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper...

zircon crystal
https://www.smorf.nl/

Granite 2
https://www.geologypage.com/2019/05/g...

Sedimentary rock
https://rockhoundresource.com/sedimen...

Topography of the Hawaiian Islands
Paul Johnson, University of Hawaii
https://nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp...