The rock record and geochemical evidence indicate that continental recycling has been occurring since the early history of the Earth. The stabilization of felsic continents in place of Earth’s early mafic crust about 3.0 to 2.0 billion years ago, perhaps due to the initiation of plate tectonics, implies widespread destruction of mafic crust during this time interval. However, the physical mechanisms of such intense recycling on a hotter, (late) Archaean and presumably plate-tectonic Earth remain largely unknown. Here we use thermomechanical modelling to show that extensive recycling via lower crustal peeling-off (delamination but not eclogitic dripping) during continent–continent convergence was near ubiquitous during the late Archaean to early Proterozoic. We propose that such destruction of the early mafic crust, together with felsic magmatism, may have caused both the emergence of silicic continents and their subsequent isostatic rise, possibly above the sea level. Such changes in the continental character have been proposed to influence the Great Oxidation Event and, therefore, peeling-off plate tectonics could be the geodynamic trigger for this event. A transition to the slab break-off controlled syn-orogenic recycling occurred as the Earth aged and cooled, leading to reduced recycling and enhanced preservation of the continental crust of present-day composition.

岩石记录和地球化学证据表明，自地球早期以来就已经发生了大陆性循环利用。大约在3.0到20亿年前，长英质大陆的稳定代替了地球早期的镁铁矿壳，这可能是由于板块构造的开始所致，这意味着在这个时间间隔内镁铁矿壳遭到了广泛破坏。但是，在较热的（较晚的）太古代和大概是板块构造的地球上进行如此强烈的再循环的物理机制仍是未知之数。在这里，我们使用热力学模型表明，在大陆-大陆收敛期间，通过下地壳剥落（分层而不是渐次滴落）进行的广泛再循环在古生代晚期至元古代早期几乎无处不在。我们认为，这种早期铁镁质地壳的破坏以及长岩浆岩浆作用，可能既引起了硅质大陆的出现，也引起了随后的等静压上升，可能在海平面以上。已经提出，大陆特征的这种变化会影响大氧化事件，因此，剥离板块构造可能是该事件的地球动力学触发因素。随着地球的老化和冷却，向平板断裂控制的同造山循环过渡的过程发生了，导致循环的减少并增强了当今组成的大陆壳的保存。