Secular Changes in the Occurrence of Subduction During the Archean

Abstract

AbstractSubduction processes play a pivotal role in facilitating material exchange between the crust and mantle, contributing to the growth of continents. However, the onset and evolution of subduction remain hotly debated. Here, we developed a high‐dimensional machine learning (ML) model to use multiple compositional data (e.g., Nb/La, Nb, Ti, Nb/U, Pb/Nd, and Nb/Th) to distinguish arc‐type from non‐arc basalts worldwide, then applied this well‐trained ML model to identify and delineate the secular occurrence of Archean arc‐type basalts. Our findings indicate that basaltic arc magmatism can be traced back to only a few early Archean cratons. A noticeable increase in the prevalence of arc‐type basalts during the Mesoarchean and Neoarchean suggests the synchronous formation of Archean subduction across different cratons. This observation hints at transitioning from the predominantly stagnant geodynamic regime to the early, more mobile tectonic regime.