{"id":32764,"date":"2026-11-11T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/?post_type=media-release&#038;p=32764"},"modified":"2026-11-11T08:57:32","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T00:57:32","slug":"ancient-rocks-reveal-when-earths-tectonic-engine-switched-on","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/ancient-rocks-reveal-when-earths-tectonic-engine-switched-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Ancient rocks reveal when Earth\u2019s tectonic engine \u2018switched on\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scientists have identified a major turning point in Earth\u2019s geological history, when the processes shaping the planet\u2019s crust changed dramatically and began to resemble the plate tectonics we see today \u2013 about 2.5 billion years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Plate tectonics shapes Earth\u2019s continents and oceans and helps regulate its climate and magnetic field over deep time, but scientists have struggled to determine when it began because the process destroys much of its own evidence by recycling Earth\u2019s crust deep inside the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Curtin University researchers have now found a distinctive chemical fingerprint preserved in rocks from around the world that pinpoints a major shift in Earth\u2019s geological record about 2.5 billion years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ancient rocks reveal when Earth\u2019s tectonic engine \u2018switched on\u2019\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TW6giJy1i3o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lead author <a href=\"https:\/\/profiles.curtin.edu.au\/24572-janne-liebmann\">Dr Janne Liebmann<\/a>, Research Fellow in Curtin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/research.curtin.edu.au\/scieng\/research\/timescales-of-mineral-systems\/\">Timescales of Mineral Systems Group<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cfigs.com.au\/\">Curtin Frontier Institute of Geoscience Solutions<\/a>, said the chemical fingerprint provided a rare glimpse into how Earth\u2019s earliest crust evolved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNew crust often forms by melting older rock, leaving behind a distinctive chemical fingerprint,\u201d Dr Liebmann said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe searched for this fingerprint in thousands of rocks from around the world, spanning almost four billion years of Earth\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe found it consistently in rocks older than 2.5 billion years, showing they were derived from a pool of ancient crust that formed about four billion years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cBut after 2.5 billion years ago, that fingerprint disappears from the geological record \u2013 and despite examining thousands of rocks, we never see it again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThat tells us something fundamental changed in the way Earth\u2019s crust was being formed and transformed, marking a transition towards the dynamic tectonic system we see today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Study co-author <a href=\"https:\/\/staffportal.curtin.edu.au\/staff\/profile\/view\/chris-kirkland-fff48934\/\">Professor Chris Kirkland<\/a>, from the <a href=\"https:\/\/research.curtin.edu.au\/scieng\/research\/timescales-of-mineral-systems\/\">Timescales of Minerals Systems Group<\/a> within Curtin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/about\/learning-teaching\/science-engineering\/school-of-earth-and-planetary-sciences\/\">School of Earth and Planetary Sciences<\/a>, said the findings helped explain when Earth acquired one of the features that sets it apart from tectonically inactive planets such as Venus and Mars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cPlate tectonics is fundamental to the way Earth has evolved over billions of years, continually reshaping the continents and oceans and influencing the planet\u2019s atmosphere and climate,\u201d Professor Kirkland said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat makes this finding remarkable is that we can see the fingerprints of an ancient Earth disappear from the geological record at a very specific point in time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt marks the transition from an early Earth where ancient crust could be repeatedly melted and reworked in place, to a system capable of moving and recycling crust on a much larger scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThis gives us our clearest geological evidence yet for when the tectonic engine that drives the modern Earth \u2018switched on\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The study, <em>\u2018Loss of ancient crustal reservoirs marks a shift in Earth\u2019s geodynamic regime\u2019<\/em>, was published in <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society A<\/em> and can be found online here: <a><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/rspa.2026.0587\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1098\/rspa.2026.0587<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists have identified a major turning point in Earth\u2019s geological history, when the processes shaping 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Wilkinson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/32764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/32764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32764"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=32764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}