Global metallogeny in relation to secular evolution of the Earth and supercontinent cycles

Mineral systems with their core of ore deposits require a rare conjunction of geodynamic settings, crustal or lithospheric fertility, crustal architecture and suitable host rocks, and preservation potential. They are thus an integral component of Earth's thermal and tectonic evolution which also control the supercontinent cycles with progressive assembly and breakup of Ur, Kenorland, Columbia, Rodinia, Gondwana, and Pangea. Despite the ongoing debate, some form of plate tectonics has operated on Earth since the Eoarchean. However, the hotter Archean mantle generated a long-term double-layered convection system which was disrupted by episodic mantle overturns, with the largest in the early Neoarchean potentially enriching the mantle in metals that form the Earth's core. Cratons with thick subcontinental mantle lithosphere (SCLM) or tectosphere keels commenced to form in the Mesoarchean as small continents amalgamated. The conjunction of pre-4.0 Ga crust, giant Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni and PGE-enriched layered mafic intrusions and major diamond fields provide strong evidence that the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe Cratons and Wyoming Craton formed part of Ur with its early potentially core-metal-fertilized SCLM. Orogenic gold deposits and VMS Cu-Zn-Pb deposits with their high preservation potential were deposited in subduction-related convergent margins that activated the assembly of all supercontinents with giant provinces related to assembly of Kenorland, Columbia and Gondwana-Pangea. Erosion-susceptible porphyry Cu-Au and epithermal Au-Ag deposits were most abundant at the time of Gondwana and Pangea and in Cenozoic convergent margins and collisional orogens, although there are rare examples associated with assembly of all supercontinents. Magmatic intrusion-related Ni-Cu-PGE, and magmatic-hydrothermal IOCG Cu-Au and Kiruna-type Fe-P deposits formed near craton margins. However, although giant Ni-Cu-PGE deposits formed during the breakup of all supercontinents, giant IOCG deposits were largely restricted to extensional episodes related to Kenorland and Columbia and Kiruna-type deposits to those involved in Columbia. The evolution of the Earth's atmosphere-hydro sphere-biosphere was an additional influence on that of the supercontinent cycle in terms of the evolution of metallogenic provinces. The Great Oxidation Event (GOE) at ca. 2.4-2.0 Ga witnessed the end of the great era of deposition of BIFs that became the hosts to high-grade Fe and Mn deposits which formed under more oxidizing conditions, with Oligocene sediment-hosted Mn deposits and late-Cenozoic Mn nodules becoming the dominant Mn resources and potential resource, respectively. The GOE was also responsible for the evolution of U deposits from the Mesoarchean paleoplacer uraninite deposits of the Witwatersrand, through Mesoproterozoic unconformity-related deposits to Phanerozoic sandstone roll deposits. The Cambrian 'explosion of life', following a second GOE event, magnified the importance of organisms, particularly those secreting Ca and Mg, carbonate in the formation or ore deposits in sedimentary basins. Late Paleoproterozoic-Mesoproterozoic shale-hosted SEDEX Zn-Pb-Cu deposits were progressively replaced by Phanerozoic carbonate-hosted MVT Pb-Zn deposits and Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Zambian-type Cu-Co deposits hosted in calcareous sedimentary sequences. Carlin-type Au-Ag deposits hosted by calcareous and carbonaceous sequences appeared in the Cretaceous to Paleogene epochs to rival the more ubiquitous orogenic gold deposits in terms of global importance. It is evident that the evolution of the great metallogenic belts of the Earth was intrinsically linked to the thermal and tectonic evolution of the Earth and particularly to plate tectonics and the supercontinent cycles. The nature of contained mineral deposits of elements with multiple valency states and those requiring particularly reactive host rocks was strongly influenced by the evolution of the atmosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere system. (c) 2022 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Mineral systems with their core of ore deposits play a crucial role in Earth's thermal and tectonic evolution, controlling the assembly and breakup of supercontinents. Plate tectonics has been operating on Earth since the Eoarchean, and the evolution of Earth's atmosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere system also influences the formation of mineral deposits.