Isua Greenstone Belt

Isua Greenstone Belt
The general location of the Isua Greenstone belt (Nuuk Region)
Dimensions
Length35 km (22 mi)[1][2]
Geography
CountryGreenland
Geology
Age of rockArchean
Type of rocktonalite, mafic rocks, metasedimentary rocks, banded iron formations, granite and granodiorite

The Isua Greenstone Belt is an Archean greenstone belt in southwestern Greenland, aged between 3.7 and 3.8 billion years.[2] The belt contains variably metamorphosed mafic volcanic and sedimentary rocks, and is the largest exposure of Eoarchaean supracrustal rocks on Earth.[3] Due to its age and low metamorphic grade [4] relative to many Eoarchaean rocks, the Isua Greenstone Belt has become a focus for investigations on the emergence of life[5][6] and the style of tectonics that operated on the early Earth.[7][8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Vickie was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Nutman, Allen P.; Friend, Clark R.L.; Horie, Kenji; Hidaka, Hiroshi (2007). The Itsaq Gneiss Complex of Southern West Greenland and the Construction of Eorarchean Crust at Convergent Plate Boundaries (PDF). Developments in Precambrian Geology. Vol. 15. pp. 187–218. doi:10.1016/S0166-2635(07)15033-7. ISBN 9780444528100. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  3. ^ Nutman, Allen P.; Friend, Clark R. L. (2009-08-01). "New 1:20,000 scale geological maps, synthesis and history of investigation of the Isua supracrustal belt and adjacent orthogneisses, southern West Greenland: A glimpse of Eoarchaean crust formation and orogeny". Precambrian Research. 172 (3): 189–211. Bibcode:2009PreR..172..189N. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2009.03.017. ISSN 0301-9268.
  4. ^ Ramírez-Salazar, Anthony; Müller, Thomas; Piazolo, Sandra; Webb, A. Alexander G.; Hauzenberger, Christoph; Zuo, Jiawei; Haproff, Peter; Harvey, Jason; Wong, Tsz Kin; Charlton, Callum (2021). "Tectonics of the Isua Supracrustal Belt 1: P-T-X-d Constraints of a Poly-Metamorphic Terrane". Tectonics. 40 (3): e2020TC006516. Bibcode:2021Tecto..4006516R. doi:10.1029/2020TC006516. ISSN 1944-9194. S2CID 234022542.
  5. ^ Nutman, Allen P.; Bennett, Vickie C.; Friend, Clark R. L.; Van Kranendonk, Martin J.; Chivas, Allan R. (September 2016). "Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures". Nature. 537 (7621): 535–538. Bibcode:2016Natur.537..535N. doi:10.1038/nature19355. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 27580034. S2CID 205250494.
  6. ^ Allwood, Abigail C.; Rosing, Minik T.; Flannery, David T.; Hurowitz, Joel A.; Heirwegh, Christopher M. (November 2018). "Reassessing evidence of life in 3,700-million-year-old rocks of Greenland". Nature. 563 (7730): 241–244. Bibcode:2018Natur.563..241A. doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0610-4. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 30333621. S2CID 52987320.
  7. ^ A. Alexander G. Webb, Thomas Müller, Jiawei Zuo, Peter J. Haproff, and Anthony Ramírez-Salazar (2020). "A non–plate tectonic model for the Eoarchean Isua supracrustal belt". Lithosphere. 12 (1): 166–179. Bibcode:2020Lsphe..12..166W. doi:10.1130/L1130.1. S2CID 213886867.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ Furnes, Harald; de Wit, Maarten; Staudigel, Hubert; Rosing, Minik; Muehlenbachs, Karlis (2007-03-23). "A Vestige of Earth's Oldest Ophiolite". Science. 315 (5819): 1704–1707. Bibcode:2007Sci...315.1704F. doi:10.1126/science.1139170. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 17379806. S2CID 11691449.