Supercontinents and crustal evolution: Preface

摘要

The assembly, configuration, evolution and break-up of super-continents have been topics of wide interest in the recent years particularly with respect to mantle dynamics, continental evolution, surface environmental changes and the origin and extinction of life forms. The advancements in analytical techniques related to petrology, geochemistry and geochronology as well as the innovations in geophysical techniques have led to several new geo-dynamic models on supercontinent history and related deep Earth processes. This special issue of Journal of Geodynamics assembles a set of research articles which address the state-of-the-art in some of these topics.