Earth’s First Tectonic Plates Formed Slowly Over A Billion Years, New Study Suggests
Tectonic map of the Earth. Hasterok et al. 2022/Earth-Sci.Rev. The first continental crust on Earth formed more than 3 billion years ago. Likely the first fragments formed by partial melting and re-crystallization of the primordial stagnant crust (formed more than 4.4 billion years ago and covering the entire planet) on a much younger and hotter …