Continental crust peaks
More new continent forms in a hundred million years than in most billion-year stretches since.
- When
- Known to
- ± 50 million years
- Era
- Neoarchean, Archean
A major pulse of juvenile crust production runs from about 2.7 to 2.6 billion years ago, accompanied by enhanced mantle depletion and widespread ore formation. By the end of the Archean a large fraction of today's continental volume exists. Zircon age distributions worldwide show this spike clearly, though how much reflects genuine creation versus better preservation remains debated.