Tracing the onset and evolution of plate tectonics with detrital rutile

• Grant number: 22/06156-1
• Support Opportunities: Generation Project Research Grant
• Duration: April 01, 2023 - March 31, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Geology
• Principal Investigator: Rodrigo Irineu Cerri
• Grantee: Rodrigo Irineu Cerri
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Alex Joaquim Choupina Andrade Silva ; Christopher Spencer ; Claudio Riccomini ; Fabrício de Andrade Caxito ; George Luiz Luvizotto ; Renato de Moraes
• Associated scholarship(s): 24/13473-9 - Age and geochemical composition in rutile: refining provenance analyses based on relationships between U-Pb ages and elemental ratios, BP.IC; 23/04323-0 - Tracing the onset and evolution of plate tectonics with detrital rutile, BP.GR

Abstract

The earth is the only planet in the Solar System that is characterized by an active plate tectonic regime, that is responsible for cyclic supercontinent formation and played a major role in the atmosphere oxygenation, the addition of nutrients to the ocean and produced resources that supported the biosphere. There is still no consensus about the age that plate tectonics was fully operational in the geological community, generating discussions if it was fully operational in the Archean or if it only developed in the Paleoproterozoic. To constrains the earliest plate tectonic regime, the metamorphic record is widely used to interpret the age and conditions of the early plate tectonic regime, since the hallmark of modern plate tectonics resides in the paired, high and low T/P metamorphic conditions. To address the issue of when plate tectonics was fully operational, this project aims to analyze detrital rutile, a Ti phase stable in high/ultra-high pressures that form during subduction and deep-crustal metamorphism. Rutile is being recently used as a new proxy to track the existence of low T/P and paired metamorphism as it has the potential to constrain its crystallization temperature (Zr-in-rutile thermometer) and U-Pb ages of individual rutile grains. Considering this discussion, this research project aims to find whether there is any change in the T/P distribution of detrital rutile from the Archean (Superior Province, Ontario and Quebec, Canada) to the Paleoproterozoic (São Francisco Craton, Brazil and West African Craton, Man Shield, Ghana, Africa), to identify the earliest evidence of modern plate tectonic regime through geochemical and U-Pb geochronology of detrital rutile. This research project will be developed in partnership with Dr. Christopher Spencer from Queen's University. (AU)