Revisiting Theories on the Formation of Earth's Continents
New research challenges the theory that the crystallization of garnet in magma beneath volcanoes was responsible for removing iron from Earth's crust, allowing the crust to remain buoyant in the planet's seas and form the continents we see today. The team of researchers recreated the intense conditions of Earth's interior in the lab to test the garnet theory and found it to be an unlikely explanation for why magmas from continental arc volcanoes are oxidized and iron-depleted. The findings pose more questions than they answer, leaving geologists and planetary scientists to rethink how this iron may have been removed from the material that would go on to form Earth's continents.