Earth's plate tectonics started through early mantle convection and crustal processes
Current geological and geochemical evidence generally supports the view that Earth's early mantle convection and crustal processes played a foundational role in initiating plate tectonics.
The retrieved literature (e.g., papers 1, 4, 7) consistently points toward early mantle convection, subduction, and crustal differentiation as central mechanisms in the onset and evolution of plate tectonics during the Hadean and Archean eons. There are no papers refuting the premise that mantle convection and crustal processes were involved.
Philipp Hellenkamp, C. Stein, U. Hansen. LLSVPs of primordial origin: Implications for the evolution of plate tectonics. 2020. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-21471
Paper [1] utilizes thermo-chemical mantle convection models coupled with self-consistent plate generation to study how early mantle features influenced the evolution of plate tectonics.
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Valley JW, Blum TB, Kitajima K, Shimizu K, Spicuzza MJ, Gonzalez JP, Kita NT, Bauer AM, Sobolev SV, Jain C, Cavosie AJ, Sobolev AV. Contemporaneous mobile- and stagnant-lid tectonics on the Hadean Earth.. 2026. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10066-2
Paper [4] analyzes Hadean detrital zircons that record subduction-related magmatism, supporting early mobile-lid and tectonic processes.
Zheng YF. Origin of continental crust on early Earth.. 2025. https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwaf341
Paper [7] argues that the operation of plate tectonics was necessary for transforming mafic crust into felsic continental crust during the Archean.
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