Evidence of secular variation in Archean crust formation in the Eastern Indian Shield

Understanding the dominant crustal accretion model in any Archean craton is the key to understanding the dominant geodynamic process responsible for early crust formation during the Hadean (> 4.0 Ga) and Archaean (4.0–2.5 Ga). The continental crust has been proposed to have formed through either horizontal/vertical accretion related to subduction or mantle plume tectonic processes. Here, the Moho depths and average crustal Vp/Vs ratios are modelled at 16 broadband stations in the Eastern Indian Shield (EIS) through HK stacking of radial P-receiver functions (PRFs). These modelled parameters are used to test both plume and subduction models, which might have played a key role in the crustal accretion of the EIS throughout the Archean. We observe a correlation between crustal age and composition within the ellipsoidal Paleoarchean cratonic domain in the Singhbhum-Odisha-Craton (SOC), which reveals an increase in age from the younger granitoid core of the SOC (with thinning of felsic crust) to the surrounding older greenstone belts (with thickening of felsic crust). A thinner mafic crust resulting from multiple magmatic events characterizes the neighbouring Meso-Proterozoic Chotanagpur Granitic Gneissic terrain (CGGT). The Common Conversion Point (CCP) image of radial PRFs reveals northward subduction of the Paleoarchean SOC below the Meso-Proterozoic CGGT.