Continental Lower Crust: Wavespeeds, Composition, and Relamination

Abstract:

The composition of much of Earth’s lower continental crust is enigmatic. The available heat-flow and wavespeed constraints can be satisfied if lower continental crust elsewhere contains anywhere from 49 to 62 wt% SiO2 (similar to andesite and dacite), with high to moderate concentrations of K, Th and U.

Beneath shields and platforms, Vp suggests that 20–30% of lower crust is mafic. A large fraction of this material could be denser than peridotite. In these settings the underlying upper mantle is too cold to permit development of a convective instability. High Vp lithologies in these settings may be the result of mafic underplating, or slow metamorphic growth of large proportions of garnet. Vp from lower crust of Paleozoic–Mesozoic orogens indicates a smaller amount of mafic rock and little or no material that is denser than peridotite. Beneath rifts, arcs, and volcanic plateaux and beneath continent-collision zones, ~10–20% of lower crust is mafic, and about half that is denser than peridotite. The inferred gravitational instability and high Moho temperatures suggest that the mafic lower crust in these regions may be temporary.

During sediment subduction, subduction erosion, arc subduction, and continent subduction, mafic rocks become eclogite and may continue to descend into the mantle, whereas more silica-rich rocks are transformed into felsic gneisses that are less dense than peridotite but more dense than continental upper crust. These more-felsic rocks may rise buoyantly, undergo decompression melting and melt extraction, and may be relaminated to the base of the crust. As a result of this refining/differentiation process, such relatively felsic rocks could form much of lower crust.