E-Book Overview
In this book the editors strive to cover all primary (i.e. non-applied) topics in Precambrian geology in a non-partisan way, by using a large team of international authors to present their datasets and highly divergent viewpoints.The chapters address: celestial origins of Earth and succeeding extraterrestrial impact events; generation of continental crust and the greenstone-granite debate; the interaction of mantle plumes and plate tectonics over Precambrian time; Precambrian volcanism, emphasising komatiite research; evolution and models for Earth's hydrosphere and atmosphere; evolution of life and its influence on Precambrian ocean chemistry and chemical sedimentation; sedimentation through Precambrian time; the application of sequence stratigraphy to the Precambrian rock record. Each topic is introduced and a non-partisan closing commentary provided at the end of each chapter. The final chapter blends the major geological events and rates at which important processes occurred into a synthesis, which postulates a number of "event clusters" in the Precambrian when significant changes occurred in many natural systems and geological environments.
E-Book Content
Developments in Precambrian Geology, 12
THE PRECAMBRIAN EARTH: TEMPOS AND EVENTS
Developments in Precambrian Geology, 12
THE PRECAMBRIAN EARTH: TEMPOS AND EVENTS
DEVELOPMENTS IN PRECAMBRIAN GEOLOGY Advisory Editor Kent Condie
Further titles in this series 1. B.F.WlNDLEY and S.M. NAQVI (Editors) Archaean Geochemistry 2. D.R. HUNTER (Editor) Precambrian of the Southern Hemisphere 3. K.C. CONDIE Archean Greenstone Belts 4. A. KRONER (Editor) Precambrian Plate Tectonics 5. Y.P.MEI'NIK Precambrian Banded Iron-formations. Physicochemical Conditions of Formation 6. A.F. TRENDALL and R.C. MORRIS (Editors) Iron-Formation: Facts and Problems 7. B. NAGY, R. WEBER, J.C. GUERRERO and M. SCHIDLOWSKI (Editors) Developments and Interactions of the Precambrian Atmosphere, Lithosphere and Biosphere 8. S.M. NAQVl (Editor) Precambrian Continental Crust and Its Economic Resources 9. D.V. RUNDQVIST and F.P. MITROFANOV (Editors) Precambrian Geology of the USSR 10. K.C. CONDIE (Editor) Proterozoic Crustal Evolution 11. K.C. CONDIE (Editor) Archean Crustal Evolution
Developments in Precambrian Geology, 12
THE PRECAMBRIAN EARTH: TEMPOS AND EVENTS Edited by P.G. E R I K S S O N Department of Geology, University of Pretoria Pretoria 0002, Republic of South Africa
W. A L T E R M A N N Centre Biophysique Mo16culaire (CBM) Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) 45071 Orl6ans, Cedex 2, France
D.R. NELSON Department of Applied Physics, Curtin University of Tectmology Perth, W.A. 6845, Australia and Geological Survey of Western Australia, Mineral House, 100 Plain Street East Perth, 6004, Australia
W.U. MUELLER Departement Sciences de la Terre Universit6 du Qu6bec ~tChicoutimi Chicoutimi, Qu6bec G7H 2B 1, Canada
O. CATUNEANU Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Alberta, Edmonton Alberta T6G 2E3, Canada
2004
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