The Assembly Of Pannotia: Implications for the Origin of Supercontinents

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Pangea is only the most recent of a series of supercontinents that have punctuated Earth history for billions of years. Episodic recurrence of supercontinent amalgamation and breakup (the supercontinent cycle) has had a profound influence on the Earth's geology, climate, and life, but the processes responsible are poorly understood. For example, we know to a first order where and when Pangea formed, but not why. The most controversial of the hypothesized supercontinents is Pannotia, whose very existence is debated. Pannotia is thought to have formed ~ 600 million years ago, consisting of the ancient continents of Gondwana, Laurentia, Baltica and possibly Siberia. Available data are permissive but not conclusive, and if it existed, its tenure was fleeting. Irrespective of whether Pannotia qualifies for supercontinent status, an over-arching question is whether the thermal legacy of its amalgamation influenced early Paleozoic global-scale mantle convection patterns. If so, this thermal legacy would have first-order implications for models of Pangea assembly and should be recognizable in proxy signals of deep mantle convection patterns beneath Pannotia as it amalgamated. Over the next five years, I plan to investigate Pannotia's thermal legacy in the context of rival geodynamic models purported to explain the relationship between the amalgamation of supercontinents and deep mantle convection patterns. This research will involve detailed fieldwork by myself, my HQP and international colleagues that will focus on specific igneous complexes in selected areas (e.g. Mexico, Atlantic Canada, Iberia, Bohemia) along the Laurentian-western Gondwanan and northern Gondwanan margins. Field work will be complemented by a range of petrological, geochemical and isotopic (U-Th-Pb; Hf, Nd, Sr, Pb, Os and O) analyses of strategically collected samples. The geodynamic models under investigation provide contrasting predictions for the locations of zones of mantle upwelling (respectively beneath Laurentia and Gondwana) that can be tested against the geological record. Deep mantle plumes are preferentially produced along the edges of such upwellings and rise towards the surface carrying geochemical and isotopic fingerprints that reveal their deep mantle roots. Rival models predict their occurrence in mafic igneous complexes along the margins of Laurentia and Gondwana, respectively. As far as I am aware, this combined field and geochemical approach of investigating geodynamic models to determine the thermal legacy of a putative supercontinent has not been employed before. If dramatic changes in mantle convection patterns accompanying Pannotia amalgamation have a measurable effect on the lithosphere, they would provide new insights into the processes responsible for major tectonic events such as the opening of new oceans in the Early Paleozoic, dramatic changes in global sea-level, climate and seawater chemistry and profound evolutionary events in the biosphere.