A review of detrital heavy mineral contributions to furthering our understanding of continental crust formation and evolution

Abstract

Abstract Detrital heavy minerals have helped address geologically complex issues such as the nature and origin of the early terrestrial crust, the growth and evolution of the continental crust, and the onset of plate tectonics, together with palaeogeographic and supercontinent cycles reconstructions. With the advent of in situ analytical techniques and a more complete understanding of trace element behaviour in rock-forming and accessory minerals, we have now at our disposal a powerful suite of tools that we can apply to multiple proxies found as detrital minerals. These can be in situ dating, trace element or isotopic tracing applied to both mineral hosts and their inclusions. We opted to showcase minerals that occur as primary minerals in a wide range of rock compositions and that can provide reliable age information. Additionally, over recent decades their chemistries have been tested as proxies to understand crustal processes. These are zircon, garnet, apatite, monazite, rutile and titanite. We include an overview and provide some approaches to overcome common biases that specifically affect these minerals. This review brings together petrological, sedimentological and geochemical considerations related to the application of these detrital minerals in crustal evolution studies, highlighting their strengths, limitations and possible future developments.