THE PRECAMBRIAN HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND EARTH. PART 1

The paper provides a review of early stages of development the Solar System and the geological history of Earth with reference to the latest data on the origin of the Solar System and the formation of the first continental rocks and results of studies of zircon, the oldest mineral so far dated on Earth. The formation of the Solar System from a gas-and-dust nebula is estimated to have begun 4.568 billion years ago. Ice was formed 1.5 million years later; it concentrated at the periphery of the system and served as the material for the largest planets, Jupiter and Saturn. In the central areas of the system, asteroids with diameters of about 10 km were formed. Their small bodies were composed of the basic material of the solar nebula, as evidenced by carbonaceous chondrite, CI, which composition is similar to the composition of the Sun, with the exception of hydrogen, helium, and volatile components that served as the main material for peripheral planets of the Solar System. Due to collision and partial merger of such small bodies, the formation of embryos of the terrestrial planets was initiated. Gravity made such embryos to cluster into larger bodies. After 7 million years, large asteroids and planet Mars were formed. It took 11 million years to form Planet Earth with a mass of 63 %, and 30 million years to form 93 % of its mass. Almost from the beginning of the formation of the Earth, short-lived radionuclides, 26Al and 60Fe, caused warming up of the small planetary bodies which led to the formation of their cores. During the initial stages, small magma reservoirs were formed, and molten iron particles gathered in the centres of the planetary bodies. As suggested by the ratio of 182W/184W, the major part of the core was formed within 20 million years, while its full mass accumulated completely within the next 50 million years. In 30–40 million years after the creation of the Solar System, the Earth collided with a cosmic body which mass was close to the mass of Mars, and it was the beginning of the formation of its satellite, Moon. When the Earth – Moon system was subject to the major meteorite bombardment 4.5–4.1 billion years ago, zircons formed due to impact activity on the Moon, and on Earth it caused major eruption of basaltic magma, the differentiation of which led to the formation of acid magmas in small amounts which caused the formation of zircons, the only remnants of the first continental rocks of Earth. Later on, meteorite bombardment continued and contributed to the burial of the first continental acid and basic rocks in the mantle, wherein such rocks eventually became part of the mantle which became the progenitor of granite-greenstone rock associations. Grey gneisses contain traces of the first continental formations of Earth as evidenced by ancient zircons that are ubiquitous in the crust of Earth. The above is confirmed by results of detailed studies of regional zircons with the use of modern analytical equipment providing for high accuracy of local analyses.

1. Allègre C.J., Poirier J.P., Humler E., Hofmann A.W., 1995. The Chemical-Composition of the Earth. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 134 (3–4), 515–526. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(95)00123-T.

2. Binder A.B., 1982. The Moon: Its figure and orbital evolution. Geophysical Research Letters 9 (1), 33–36. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1029/GL009i001p00033.

3. Blichert-Toft J., Albarède F., 2008. Hafnium isotopes in Jack Hills zircons and the formation of the Hadean crust. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 265 (3–4), 686–702. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2007.10.054.

4. Compston W., Pidgeon R.T., 1986. Jack Hills, evidence of more very old detrital zircons in Western-Australia. Nature 321 (6072), 766–769. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/321766a0.

5. Dziewonski A.M. 1984. Mapping the lower mantle, determination of lateral heterogeneity up to degree and order 6. Journal of Geophysical Research 89 (B7), 5929–5952. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JB089iB07p05929.

6. Glukhovskii M.Z., Kuz'min M.I., 2013. The Kotuikan ring structure as possible evidence for a large impact event in the northern Siberian craton. Russian Geology and Geophysics 54 (1), 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rgg.2012.12.001.

7. Glukhovsky M.Z., Moralev V.M., Kuz'min M.I., 1994. The hot belt of the early Earth and its evolution. Geotektonika (Russian Geotectonics) (5), 3–15 (in Russian) [Глуховский М.З., Моралев В.М., Кузьмин М.И. Горячий пояс ранней Земли и его эволюция // Геотектоника. 1994. № 5. С. 3–15].

8. Goldblatt C., Zahnle K.J., Sleep N.H., Nisbet E.G., 2010. The Eons of Chaos and Hades. Solid Earth 1 (1), 1–3. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/se-1-1-2010.

9. Grange M.L., Pidgeon R.T., Nemchin A.A., Timms N.E., Meyer C., 2013. Interpreting the U-Pb data from primary and secondary features in lunar zircon. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 101, 112–132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gca. 2012.10.013.

10. Harrison T.M., Schmitt A.K., McCulloch M.T., Lovera O.M., 2008. Early (N = 4.5 Ga) formation of terrestrial crust: Lu–Hf, delta O–18, and Ti thermometry results for Hadean zircons. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 268 (3–4), 476–486. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.02.011.

11. Holden P., Lanc P., Ireland T.R., Harrison T.M., Foster J.J., Bruce Z., 2009. Mass-Spectrometric Mining of Hadean Zircons by Automated SHRIMP Multi-Collector and Single-Collector U/Pb Zircon Age Dating: The First 100,000 grains. International Journal of Mass Spectrometry 286 (2–3), 53–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijms.2009.06.007.

12. Khain V.E., 2003. Main Problems of Modern Geology. Nauchny Mir, Moscow, 348 p. (in Russian) [Хаин В.Е. Основные проблемы современной геологии. М.: Научный мир, 2003. 348 с.].

13. Kinny P., Wijbrans J.R., Froude D.O., Williams I.S., Compston W., 1990. Age constraints on the geological evolution of the Narryer Gneiss Complex, Western Australia. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 37 (1), 51–69. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/08120099008727905.

14. Kuzmin M.I., Yarmolyuk V.V., Kravchinsky V.A., 2010. Phanerozoic hot spot traces and paleogeographic reconstructions of the Siberian continent based on interaction with the African large low shear velocity province. Earth-Science Reviews 102 (1–2), 29–59. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.06.004.

15. Lauretta D., 2011. A cosmochemical view of the Solar System. Elements 7 (1), 11–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.2113/ gselements.7.1.11.

16. Maas R., Kinny P.D., Williams I.S., Froude D.O., Compston W., 1992. The Earths oldest known crust – a geochronological and geochemical study of 3900–4200 Ma old detrital zircons from Mt. Narryer and Jack Hills, Western Australia. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 56 (3), 1281–1300. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0016-7037(92)90062-N.

17. Maruyama S., Kumazawa M., Kawakati S., 1994. Towards a new paradigm on the Earth’s dynamics. The Journal of the Geological Society of Japan 100, 1–3.

18. Maruyama S., Santosh M., Zhao D., 2007. Superplume, supercontinent, and postperovskite: mantle dynamics and anti-plate tectonics on the core–mantle boundary. Gondwana Research 11 (1–2), 7–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2006.06.003.

19. McDonough W.G., Sun S.S., 1995. The composition of the Earth. Chemical Geology 120 (3–4), 223–253. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/0009-2541(94)00140-4.

20. Menneken M., Nemchin A.A., Geisler T., Pidgeon R.T., Wilde S.A., 2007. Hadean diamonds in zircon from Jack Hills, Western Australia. Nature 448 (7156), 917–920. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06083.

21. Myers J.S., 1988. Early Archean Narryer gneiss complex, Yilgarn Craton, Western-Australia. Precambrian Research 38 (4), 297–307. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0301-9268(88)90029-0.

22. Nebel O., Rapp R.P., Yaxley G.M., 2014. The role of detrital zircons in Hadean crustal research. Lithos 190–191, 313–327. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2013.12.010.

23. Nebel-Jacobsen Y., Münker C., Nebel O., Gerdes A., Mezger K., Nelson D.R., 2010. Reworking of Earth's first crust: constraints from Hf isotopes in Archean zircons from Mt. Narryer, Australia. Precambrian Research 182 (3), 175–186. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2010.07.002.

24. O’Neil J., Boyet M., Carlson R.W., Paquette J.-L., 2013. Half a billion years of reworking of Hadean mafic crust to produce the Nuvvuagittuq Eoarchean felsic crust. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 379, 13–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.epsl.2013.07.030.

25. Taylor D.J., McKeegan K.D., Harrison T.M., 2009. Lu–Hf zircon evidence for rapid lunar differentiation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 279 (3–4), 157–164. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.12.030.

26. Wood B., 2011. The formation and differentiation of Earth. Physics Today 64 (12), 40–45 http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/ PT.3.1362.

27. Wood B.J., Halliday A.N., 2010. The lead isotopic age of the Earth can be explained by core formation alone. Nature 465 (7299), 767–771. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature09072.

28. Wood B.J., Walter M.J., Wade J., 2006. Accretion of the Earth and segregation of its core. Nature 441 (7095), 825–833. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature04763.

29. Yarmolyuk V.V., Kuzmin M.I., 2012. Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic rare-metal magmatism of Central Asia: Stages, provinces, and formation settings. Geology of Ore Deposits 54 (5), 313–333. http://dx.doi.org/10.1134/S1075701512050054.

30. Zhao, D., 2001. Seismic structure and origin of hotspots and mantle plumes. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 192 (3), 251–265. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(01)00465-4.

31. Zharkov V.N., 2000. On the history of the lunar orbit. Solar System Research 34 (1), 1–11.

32. Zonenshain L.P., Kuz'min M.I., 1983. Intraplate volcanism and its significance for the understanding of processes in the Earth's mantle. Geotektonika (Russian Geotectonics) (1), 28–45 (in Russian) [Зоненшайн Л.П., Кузьмин М.И. Внутри-плитовый вулканизм и его значение для понимания процессов в мантии Земли // Геотектоника. 1983. № 1. С. 28–45].

33. Zonenshain L.P., Kuz'min M.I., Moralev V.M., 1976. Global tectonics, magmatism and metallogeny. Nedra, Moscow, 231 p. (in Russain) [Зоненшайн Л.П., Кузьмин М.И., Моралев В.М. Глобальная тектоника, магматизм и металлогения. М.: Недра, 1976. 231 с.].

34. Zonenshain L.P., Kuz'min M.I., Natapov L.M., 1990. Plate Tectonics of the USSR Territory. Nedra, Moscow, V. 1, 326 p.; V. 2, 334 p. (in Russian) [Зоненшайн Л.Р., Кузьмин М.И., Натапов Л.М. Тектоника литосферных плит территории СССР. М.: Недра, 1990. Кн. 1, 326 с. Кн. 2, 334 с.].