TITLE:
The Main Geological Events of the Chinese Archaean and Proterozoic Eons
AUTHORS:
Keqiang He, Rulin Du
KEYWORDS:
China; Archaean; Proterozoic; Precambrian; Geological Events
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Geology,
Vol.2 No.3,
July
26,
2012
ABSTRACT: A systematic review and comparison of the time, sequence, nature, and characteristics of the major geological events of worldwide Archean and Chinese Precambrian and their interrelationships reveals that these events reveals the spatial-temporal pattern of the events and their significance in geological evolution. The study also touches upon relationship between Early Precambrian Era and plate tectonics. A comparison between the Precambrian major geological events and those elsewhere on the earth proves that the crustal evolution is characterized by striking irreversibility, gradualism, and synchronism. The geological events in China have their unique features, which shows that China has a relatively complete record of formation and evolution of rocks, strata, structures, and organisms spanning 3800 Ma to 540 Ma. The Archean underwent multiple-stage complex metamorphism and deformation; metamorphism is on the higher end; komatiite is absent in the greenstone belts; cratonization occurred rather late and varied between the north and the south. The research results above provide main theoretical basis for deeply systematic researching the early dynamic evolution laws of the earth and the dynamic evolution characteristics of the tectonic plates.