This means that oceans and continental crust existed within 150 million years of Earth's formation.
Such old continental crust and the mantle below it are less dense than other places in the earth.
The under-ocean part constitutes about 20% of the continental crust.
This oceanic material appears to have been thrust upon the continental crust.
Granite is currently known only on Earth, where it forms a major part of continental crust.
In contrast, the bulk of the continental crust is much older.
The average age of the current Earth's continental crust has been estimated to be about 2.0 billion years.
The continental crust has an average composition similar to that of andesite.
Research interests: Origin, development, and structural evolution of the continental crust.
About 40% of the Earth's surface is now overlaid by continental crust.
The location had a great deal to be said for it- central, in the middle of a stable continental plate, good climate.
At the leading edge of a moving continental plate there will be little or no shelf.
So the Mediterranean is different from those inland seas which sit on top of continental plates.
The continental plates which powered them, however, were on a different and grander scale.
At the end of this era, the continental plates that had developed were more or less the same we have today.
But they can also occur in the more stable interior of continental plates.
The edge of the continental plate folds into a huge mountain range.
Granite is usually found in the continental plates of the Earth's crust.
A craton is the oldest part of a continental plate.
New Zealand sits at the boundary between two continental plates.