Several ranges encompassing more than 35,000 km 2 of Sonora, Mexico, contain distinctly lineated and foliated granitic and metamorphic rocks that constitute the lower plates of metamorphic core complexes. Penetrative deformation is characterized by gently dipping mylonitic foliation across which northeast trending stretching lineation is everywhere developed. Prominent northwest trending fractu...

The Precambrian geological record shows peak of activity at 1.1, 1.9–2.1, 2.7 and 3.5 Ga, often associated with massive crustal production, orogenesis and supercontinent cycles. It has been suggested that these bursts of tectonic activity are due to mantle avalanche events, where accumulating subducted slabs periodically penetrate the 670 km discontinuity, and subsequent upwelling counterflow a...

The Central Asian Orogenic Belt, or Altaids, is an amalgamation of volcanic arcs and microcontinent blocks that records a complex late Precambrian–Mesozoic accretionary history. Although microcontinents cored by Precambrian basement are proposed to play an integral role in the accretion process, a lack of isotopic data hampers volume estimates of newly produced arc-derived versus old-cratonic c...

INTRODUCTION Precambrian rocks in the Tusas Mountains range from nearly monomineralic quartzite, in which the principal result of metamorphism has been simple recrystallization, through locally metasomatized schist and gneiss profoundly modified by potash-rich fluids during the intrusion of pegmatite. Texturally, the rocks range from schist and phyllite containing penetrative and pervasive clea...

One of the strongest paleontological arguments in favor of the origin of bilaterally symmetrical animals (Bilateria) prior to their obvious and explosive appearance in the fossil record in the early Cambrian, 542 million years ago, is the occurrence of trace fossils shaped like elongated sinuous grooves or furrows in the Precambrian. Being restricted to the seafloor surface, these traces are re...

Five representative terrestrial analogs of lunar craters are detailed relevant to Precambrian fumarolic activity. Fumarolic fluids contain the ingredients for protolife. Energy sources to derive formaldehyde, amino acids and related compounds could be by flow charging, charge separation and volcanic shock. With no photodecomposition in shadow, most fumarolic fluids at 40 K would persist over ge...

Despite the protracted history of life on earth spanning well over 3.8 Ga, fossil record of the Precambrian (>543 Ma) largely documents only microscopic life. The mostly simple Precambrian life forms were followed by a sudden explosive radiation of multicellular animals at the turn of the Cambrian period (543-490 Ma) between 530 and 520 Ma ago, when almost two-thirds of the animal phyla make th...