A public lecture by Chris Hawkesworth, School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol and 2019 UWA Robert and Maude Gledden Senior Visiting Fellow.
The Earth is the only known planet on which there is plate tectonics, and on which there is life as we know it. It was not always that way, the Earth initially had a magma ocean, it cooled through a stagnant lid phase, and at some stage plate tectonics became the dominant tectonic regime. There are many models of the conditions required to initiate plate tectonics, but the evidence of when it started has to come from the geological record. Western Australia contains some of the best preserved rocks from the period over 3 billion years ago when dramatic changes in tectonic regime took place.
This lecture discusses the nature of the geological record, it explores links between different tectonic styles and the chemistry of the igneous rocks, and changes in the rigidity of the continental crust that might be associated with the development of plates. It explores changes that reflect the onset of plate tectonics that can be recognised from the rocks and minerals that have survived to the present day, and considers possible links between the development of plate tectonics and life on Earth.
The Earth is the only known planet on which there is plate tectonics, and on which there is life as we know it. It was not always that way, the Earth initially had a magma ocean, it cooled through a stagnant lid phase, and at some stage plate tectonics became the dominant tectonic regime. There are many models of the conditions required to initiate plate tectonics, but the evidence of when it started has to come from the geological record. Western Australia contains some of the best preserved rocks from the period over 3 billion years ago when dramatic changes in tectonic regime took place.
This lecture discusses the nature of the geological record, it explores links between different tectonic styles and the chemistry of the igneous rocks, and changes in the rigidity of the continental crust that might be associated with the development of plates. It explores changes that reflect the onset of plate tectonics that can be recognised from the rocks and minerals that have survived to the present day, and considers possible links between the development of plate tectonics and life on Earth.