Evolution of Earth’s Earliest Crust

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Earth’s continental and oceanic crust, the combination of which is likely unique in the solar system, plays a central role in the operation of our planet’s lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. The mechanisms by which this crust formed and stabilized early in Earth history remains one of the outstanding questions in the geological sciences. In this application, I propose to address this question by expanding my on-going research program on the Acasta Gneiss Complex (AGC) of the Northwest Territories. The AGC arguably contains the oldest rocks in the world (4.02 billion years old) and is certainly one of the few locations worldwide where evidence can be brought to bear on the first one billion years of Earth history. Despite its status as an old crust locality, much of the AGC remains unstudied. In particular, all previous studies of the AGC have focused exclusively on a ~30 km