Three Principal Types of the Earth's Lithosphere and Their Metallogenic Specialization

摘要

It is shown in this paper that, according to the data of Russian and non-Russian specialists, three characteristic "lines" ("polychronic formation arrays") of metallogeny absolutely correspond to the idea of the existence of three principal types of the Earth's lithosphere. Two of these types are well known, the "classical" oceanic and continental types; the third, marginal-sea type, with the so-called modified type of mineralization, is still underestimated. In the same time, this type of the lithosphere, usually considered as intermediate or transitional, is nearly the most determinative in the Earth's evolution both in tectonics (generation of new portions of juvenile continental crust and formation of supercontinents) and in the metallogenic aspects (diverse and high industrial potential of ore occurrences).