Creation of a continent recorded in zircon zoning

We have discovered a robust microcrystalline record of the early genesis of North American lithosphere preserved in the U-Pb age and oxygen isotope zoning of zircons from a lower crustal paragneiss in the Neoarchean Superior province. Detrital igneous zircon cores with delta O-18 values of 5.1%-7.1%c record creation of primitive to increasingly evolved crust from 2.85 +/- 0.02 Ga to 2.67 +/- 0.02 Ga. Sharp chemical unconformity between cores and higher 8110 (8.4%-10.4%) metamorphic overgrowths as old as 2.66 +/- 0.01 Ga dictates a rapid sequence of arc unroofing, burial of detrital zircons in hydrosphere-altered sediment, and transport to lower crust late in upper plate assembly. The period to 2.58 +/- 0.01 Ga included similar to 80 m.y. of high-temperature (similar to 700-650 degrees C, nearly continuous overgrowth events reflecting stages in maturation of the subjacent mantle root. Huronian continental rifting is recorded by the youngest zircon tip growth at 2512 +/- 8 Ma (similar to 600 degrees C) signaling magma intraplating and the onset of rigid plate behavior. This >150 m.y. microscopic isotope record in single crystals demonstrates the sluggish volume diffusion of U, Pb, and O in zircon throughout protracted regional metamorphism, and the consequent advances now possible in reconstructing planetary dynamics with zircon zoning.