The continental crust is the archive of Earth history. Much of what we know about the development of Earth is learned from the continental crust, and it is within the crust that many natural resources are found. Hence, understanding its formation and evolution is a key aspect to a deeper knowledge of the Earth system. This thesis is a study of the processes that have formed and shaped the distribution of continental crust, with specific focus on crustal development associated with the Rodinian supercontinent and the Grenville Orogeny spanning ca. 1200 to 900 Ma. Specifically it addresses an aspect of the incompleteness of the record of continental crust formation. The preserved continental crust is punctuated with periods of lesser and greater frequency of geologic features, e.g., the temporal distribution of the ages of mineral deposits, juvenile granitoids, eclogites, granulites, and the U-Pb crystallization ages of zircons now preserved in modern and ancient sediments (see Gastil, 1960; Barley and Groves, 1992; Condie, 1998; Campbell and Allen, 2008; Brown, 2007; Bradley, 2011). In addition, interpretive features in the geologic record also have an apparent episodic distribution such as passive margins (Bradley, 2011) and supercontinents (Condie, 1998). The episodic nature of these geologic phenomena implies either an episodic formation or preferential preservation of continental crust. These two end member models have been explained through a number of geologic processes such as eruption of superplumes, global disruption of thermal structure of the mantle, assembly of supercontinents, collisional orogenesis. Through the chapters outlined below, this thesis explores the connection of these episodic geologic events with key isotopic signals, principally U-Pb, Hf, and O isotopes in zircon supplemented by sedimentology, structural geology, and igneous geochemistry. It comprises a series of chapters developed around manuscripts prepared for publication.

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The western margin of South America between 30ºS and 36ºS is seismically active. While the largest magnitude earthquakes are the interplate subduction zone events, the historically most devastating earthquakes have been the moderate-to-large magnitude earthquakes with depths < 35 km in the Andean back-arc. This region is characterized by accreted terranes later reactivated during Mesozoic extensional processes. Crustal seismicity in the back-arc is related to the thin-skinned Precordillera (PC) fold-thrust belt and the thick-skinned Sierras Pampeanas (SP) basement-cored uplifts overlying the flat slab segment. South of 33ºS, the active volcanic arc above the normally dipping subducted plate is also seismically active at crustal depths. In this study we combined historical and regional broadband seismic data to characterize moderate-to-large earthquakes and the crustal structure in this region. We have digitized and modeled teleseismic records of the 1944 and 1952 San Juan, Argentina PC earthquakes. Both events have shallow source depths, short duration of the source time functions with a thrusting focal solution for the 1944 (Mw 7.0) earthquake and a major strike-slip component in the 1952 (Mw 6.8) earthquake solution. By modeling regional broadband waveforms collected during the CHile-ARgentina Geophysical Experiment (CHARGE) during 2000 and 2002 we constrained the seismic moment tensor and improved focal depths for 27 crustal (3.5 < Mw < 5.1) earthquakes. We found predominantly thrust-fault focal mechanisms and focal depths of 10-26 km for earthquakes over the flat slab region; the eastern SP and active arc have earthquakes with strike-slip focal mechanisms and shallower depths. We used these same earthquakes to determine the crustal structure using raypaths that sample different geologic terranes. Our results indicate high Vp, low Vs for the northern Cordillera, PC and western SP thicker crust; low Vp, low Vs and a thinner crust beneath the arc (south of 33°S) consistent with a mafic composition and partial melt. The eastern SP basement shows low Vp, low Vs and thinner crust consistent with a more quartz-rich composition. These differences have an important control on the present day Andean earthquake deformation and the high seismic hazard posed in this region.

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Over recent years geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys of mid-ocean ridges have revealed a significant degree of along-axis variability not only in seabed morphology, but also in crustal structure, particularly Numerous geophysical surveys of the Valu Fa Ridge, southwest Pacific, have mapped the extent of an axial mid-crustal reflector. This reflector has been interpreted as representing the top of a sill-like melt lens, comprising a high percentage of partial melt, lying at the top of a crustal magma chamber. In 1995, a controlled-source, wide-angle seismic dataset was acquired at the Valu Fa Ridge during RN Maurice Ewing cruise EW9512, to investigate the mid-deep crustal structure at this ridge, and particularly the crustal magma chamber associated with the melt lens beneath the ridge axis. The EW9512 acquisition geometry was primarily two-dimensional in design, and modelling of these 2-D profiles revealed the presence of an axial low velocity zone beneath the melt lens. This low velocity zone is thought to represent a region of crystal mush comprising a much lower percentage of partial melt than is present in the overlying melt lens. Similar structures have been modelled beneath a number of other mid-ocean ridges. The primary aim of this study was to build on this 2-D interpretation by taking advantage of three-dimensional ray coverage in the axial region in order to assess the along-axis continuity of the magmatic system, correlate this to any ridge segmentation apparent in the seabed morphology, and determine if ridge segmentation is related to the magma supply. The 3-D data were analysed using a tomographic inversion technique. The inversion results suggest that the axial low velocity zone may be segmented on a scale of 5-10 km, which correlates with the morphological segmentation of the ridge crest and is believed to reflect episodic magma supply with different ridge segments at different stages of a cycle of magmatic and amagmatic extension. However, three- dimensional ray coverage is not ideal owing to the dominantly 2-D acquisition geometry. Therefore a detailed assessment of data uncertainty and resolution was undertaken to enable a meaningful interpretation of the inversion results in terms of which features have a geological origin and which are artefacts of the inversion process. P-S mode converted arrivals arising from mid-crustal interfaces were also modelled in order to obtain improved geological constraints on the crustal structure than is possible from P-wave studies alone. This modelling indicates that the uppermost crust is pervaded by thin cracks. In addition, techniques were developed for modeling the polarisation of 5-wave arrivals with low signal strength. Application of these methods suggests that the thin cracks have a preferred orientation parallel to the ridge crest on-axis, and oblique to the ridge crest off-axis which is thought to reflect the pattern of southward propagation of the ridge system inferred from regional tectonic and bathymetric studies. Modelling of P-S mode converted arrivals arising from conversion at the top of the melt lens provided additional constraints on the properties of the melt lens. In conjunction with the 3-D tomographic results, this work suggests that the southernmost ridge segment in the study area has recently become magmatically active following a period of amagmatic extension suggested by its morphology, thus providing evidence for episodic melt supply at this ridge. As part of the suggestions for further work, a theoretical investigation of survey resolution was undertaken to test commonly adopted acquisition geometries with a view to optimising the design and cost-effectiveness of future 3-D controlled-source tomographic experiments.

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