Planetary differentiation

Once hot, Earth’s interior could begin its chemical evolution. For example, outgassing of a fraction of volatile substances that had been trapped in small amounts within the accreting planet probably formed the earliest atmosphere. Outgassing of water to Earth’s surface began before 4.3 billion years ago, a time based on analysis of ancient zircons that show the effects of alteration by liquid water. In Earth’s deepest interior, chemical reactions between the mantle and the core became possible. Perhaps the most important event for Earth’s surface, however, was the formation of the earliest crust by partial melting of the interior. This chemical separation by partial melting and outgassing of volatiles is termed differentiation. As the interior differentiated, less-dense liquids rose from the melt toward the surface and crystallized to form crust.

Uncertainty exists over when and how the continental crust began to grow, because the record of the first 600 million years has not been found. The oldest known rocks date to only about 4 billion years. Because these are metamorphic rocks—i.e., because they were changed by heat and pressure from preexisting crustal rocks at the time of their dated age—it can be inferred that crust was present earlier in Earth’s history. In fact, two tiny grains of zircon from Australia have been dated at 4.28 billion and 4.4 billion years, but their relation to the formation of continental crust is uncertain.

Although direct evidence is not available, indirect evidence derived from the compositions of rocks indicates that continental crust formed early. Isotopic analyses suggests that the average age of the present continental crust is about 2.5 billion years. Thus, in all probability, repeated partial melting of the upper mantle formed successively more refined, continent-like crustal rocks starting before 4 billion years ago. Over the first billion years, however, much of the continental crust that was formed appears to have been reincorporated into the mantle—the isotopic data infers that on average about one-third of the continental crust was recycled every billion years. As a result, only a few fragments of crust older than 3.5 billion years remain, virtually none older than 4 billion years.

The process of partial melting and formation of crust, especially continental crust, leads to a depletion of certain elements (e.g., silicon and aluminum) from the mantle. Undepleted and thus relatively primitive regions still exist, making up about one-third to one-half of the mantle, according to the isotopic models. The distribution of depleted and undepleted regions, however, is uncertain. Although much (perhaps all) of the upper mantle appears to be depleted, it is not known whether depleted rocks also exist in the lower mantle.

What is recognized is that Earth is still differentiating into chemically distinct layers or regions. This is most evident in the processes of plate tectonics that involve ongoing production of crust at divergent plate boundaries such as the midocean ridges. As this material is cycled back down into the mantle at subduction zones and then upward again, it continues to undergo chemical processing from basaltic to andesitic and eventually to granitic (continental) composition. Thus, chemical and thermal evolution of the interior, intimately connected through mantle convection, is still vigorously in progress some 4.56 billion years after the formation of the planet.