Computational modeling shows that plate tectonics weren't necessary for early continents.
The formation of Earth's continents billions of years ago set the stage for life to thrive. But scientists disagree over how those land masses formed and if it was through geological processes we still see today.adds new information to that debate, poking holes in the leading theory of continent formation. Hernández Uribe used computer models to study the formation of magmas thought to hold clues to the origin of continents.
Last year, scientists from China and Australia published a paper arguing that Archaean zircons could only be formed by subduction -- when two tectonic plates collide underwater, pushing land mass to the surface. That process still happens today, causing earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and reshaping the coasts of continents.
"Using my calculations and models, you can get the same signatures for zircons and even provide a better match through the partial melting of the bottom of the crust," Hernández Uribe said."So based on these results, we still do not have enough evidence to say which process formed the continents." "Our planet is the only planet in the solar system that has active plate tectonics as we know it," Hernández Uribe said."And this relates to the origin of life, because how the first continents moved controlled the weather, it controlled the chemistry of the oceans, and all that is related to life."New finding contradicts previous assumptions about the role of mobile plate tectonics in the development of life on Earth.
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