Abstract:
This paper discusses geological events with an approximately global preservational scale which can aid
inter-cratonic correlations and contribute to postulates of supercontinents for a set of chosen Precambrian
cratons. The chronological scale of such events is highly variable, and most event types detailed
(supercontinent-, mantle plume-, orogenic-, chemostratigraphic-, glacial events and major unconformities)
have durations concomitant with the large-scale interaction of mantle thermal and plate tectonic
processes that were largely responsible for their genesis, i.e. 10s to 100s of millions of years. Geologically
instantaneous events of global compass (e.g., impact or major eruptive events) provide important
chronological markers for interpreting the longer term events. The same interplay of tectono-thermal
geodynamic processes that drives the evolution of the Earth and the operation of its supercontinent
cycles is also, ultimately, responsible for and of comparable duration to first- and second-order sequence
stratigraphic cyclicity. This paper thus serves to introduce these concepts and discuss the problems in
their application to specific Precambrian cratons, in relation to the aim of this special issue, of providing
a set of accommodation curves for many of these ancient crustal terranes.
