Continents reach their modern volume
Crust production and destruction come into balance, and the continents stop growing.
- When
- Known to
- ± 150 million years
- Era
- Paleoproterozoic, Proterozoic
By around 1.8 billion years ago the volume of continental crust approaches its present value, with new crust created at roughly the rate old crust is recycled. From here the continents mostly rearrange rather than expand. The shift also changes ocean chemistry and sediment supply, and it marks the beginning of the long, unusually stable interval that follows.