Archean continental crust formed by melting mafic cumulates

Large swaths of juvenile crust with tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite (TTG) composition were added to the continental crust from about 3.5 billion years ago. Although TTG magmatism marked a pivotal step in early crustal growth and cratonisation, the petrogenetic processes, tectonic setting and sources of TTGs are not well known. Part of this issue is the general difficulty in disentangling the chemical effects of fractional crystallization and partial melting, which impedes constraining primitive melt compositions and, by extension, investigating source-rock lithology and composition. To investigate these aspects, we assessed the composition and petrogenesis of Archaean TTGs using high field-strength elements that are fluid immobile, uniformly incompatible, but differently compatible between various residual minerals. The Nb concentrations and Ti anomalies of TTGs show the overwhelming effects of amphibole and plagioclase fractionation and permit constraints on the composition of primary TTGs. The latter are relatively incompatible element-poor and characterised by variably high La/Sm, Sm/Yb and Sr/Y, and positive Eu anomalies. Differences in these parameters do not represent differences in melting depth, but instead indicate differences in the degree of melting and fractional crystallisation. Primary TTGs formed by the melting of rutile- and garnet-bearing plagioclase-cumulate rocks that resided in the roots of mafic proto-continents. The partial melting of these rocks likely was part of a causal chain that linked TTG magmatism to the formation of sanukitoids and K-rich granites. These processes explain the growth and differentiation of the Archean continental crust, without requiring external forcing such as meteorite impact or the start of global plate tectonics.