Lithospheric growth at margins of cratons

Deep seismic reflection profiles collected across Proterozoic–Archean margins are now sufficiently numerous to formulate a consistent hypothesis of how continental nuclei grow laterally to form cratonic shields. This picture is made possible both because the length of these regional profiles spans all the tectonic elements of an orogen on a particular cratonic margin and because of their great depth range. Key transects studied include the LITHOPROBE SNORCLE 1 transect and the BABEL survey, crossing the Slave and Baltic craton margins, respectively. In most cases, the older (Archean) block appears to form a wedge of uppermost mantle rock embedded into the more juvenile (Proterozoic) block by as much as 100–200 km at uppermost mantle depths and Archean lithosphere is therefore more laterally extensive at depth than at the surface. Particularly bright reflections along the Moho are cited as evidence of shear strain within a weak, low-viscosity lower crustal channel that lies along the irregular top of the indenting wedge. The bottom of the wedge is an underthrust/subduction zone, and associated late reversal in subduction polarity beneath the craton margin emerges as a common characteristic of these margins although related arc magmatism may be minor.