The record of the continental lithosphere is patchy and incomplete; no known rock is older than 4.02 Ga, and less than 5% of the rocks preserved are older than 3 Ga. In addition, there is no recognizable mantle lithosphere from before 3 Ga. We infer that there was lithosphere before 3 Ga and that ∼3 Ga marks the stabilization of blocks of continental lithosphere that have since survived. This was linked to plate tectonics emerging as the dominant tectonic regime in response to thermal cooling, the development of a more rigid lithosphere, and the recycling of water, which may in turn have facilitated plate tectonics. A number of models, using different approaches, suggest that at 3 Ga the volume of continental crust was ∼70% of its present-day volume and that this may be a minimum value. The continental crust before 3 Ga was on average more mafic than that generated subsequently, and this pre-3 Ga mafic new crust had fractionated Lu/Hf and Sm/Nd ratios as inferred for the sources of tonalite-trondhjemite-g...

中文翻译：

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地球大陆岩石圈随时间变化

大陆岩石圈的记录不完整且不完整；没有已知的岩石大于 4.02 Ga，保存的岩石中小于 5% 的年龄大于 3 Ga。此外，没有可识别的 3 Ga 之前的地幔岩石圈。我们推断 3 Ga 之前存在岩石圈，并且 ~ 3 Ga 标志着此后幸存下来的大陆岩石圈块体的稳定。这与板块构造作为响应热冷却、更刚性岩石圈的发展和水的循环的主要构造体系而出现有关，这反过来可能促进了板块构造。许多使用不同方法的模型表明，在 3 Ga 时，大陆地壳的体积是其当前体积的 70% 左右，这可能是最小值。