Greenstone-granite belts developed at many different times throughout the long Archean Eon. The Isua greenstone belt in West Greenland is about 3.85 billion years old. In the Zimbabwean craton, they formed over three successive periods: the Selukwe belt about 3.8 to 3.75 billion years ago, the Belingwean belts about 2.9 billion years ago, and the Bulawayan-Shamvaian belts about 2.7 to 2.6 billion years ago. The Barberton belt in the Kaapvaal craton and the Warrawoona belt in the Pilbara block are 3.5 billion years old. Globally, the most important period of formation was from 2.7 to 2.6 billion years ago, especially in the Slave and Superior provinces of North America, the Yilgarn block in Australia, and the Dharwar craton in India. Some of the better-documented belts seem to have formed within about 50 million years. It is important to note that while the Bulawayan-Shamvaian belts were forming in the Zimbabwean craton, flat-lying sediments and volcanics were laid down in the Pongola Rift and the Witwatersrand Basin not far to the north.

Greenstone-granite belts range from aggregates of several belts (as in the southern Superior province of Canada) to irregular, even triangular-shaped belts (as in the Barberton in South Africa) to synclinal basins (as in the Indian Dharwar craton). The irregular and synclinal shapes are commonly caused by the diapiric intrusion of younger granites.

Important occurrences are the Barberton belt in South Africa; the Sebakwian, Belingwean, and Bulawayan-Shamvaian belts of Zimbabwe; the Yellowknife belts in the Slave province of Canada; the Abitibi, Wawa, Wabigoon, and Quetico belts of the Superior province of Canada; the Dharwar belts in India; and the Warrawoona and Yilgarn belts in Australia.

Economic significance of Archean granulite-gneiss deposits

The mid-lower crust is relatively barren of ore deposits as compared to the upper crust with its sizable concentrations of greenstones and granites, and therefore little mineralization is found in the granulite-gneiss belts. The few exceptions include a nickel–copper sulfide deposit at Selebi-Pikwe in the Limpopo belt in Botswana that is economic to mine, and banded-iron formations in gneisses in the eastern Hubei and Liaoning provinces of northwestern China that form the foundation of a major steel industry. There are subeconomic quantities of chromitite in the anorthosites of western Greenland, southern India, and the Limpopo belt; iron from a banded-iron formation at Isua in western Greenland; and tungsten in amphibolites of western Greenland.

Granulite-gneiss rock types

Orthogneisses of deformed and recrystallized tonalite (a granitic-type rock rich in plagioclase feldspar) and granite constitute the most common rock type. The geochemical signature of these rocks closely resembles that of modern equivalents that occur in granitic batholiths in the Andes. Where such rocks have been metamorphosed under conditions associated with amphibolite facies, they contain hornblende, biotite, or a combination of the two. However, where they have been subjected to conditions of higher temperature associated with the granulite facies, the rocks contain pyroxene and hypersthene and so can be called granulites.

The granulites and gneisses enclose a wide variety of other minor rock types in layers and lenses. These types include schists and paragneisses that were originally deposited on the Earth’s surface as shales and which now contain high-temperature metamorphic minerals such as biotite, garnet, cordierite, staurolite, sillimanite, or kyanite. There also are quartzites, which were once sandstones or cherts; marbles (either limestones or dolomites); and banded-iron formations. Commonly intercalated with these metasediments are amphibolites, which locally contain relict pillow structures, demonstrating that they are derived from basaltic lavas extruded underwater. These amphibolites have a trace element chemistry quite similar to that of modern seafloor basalts. The amphibolites are often accompanied by chromite-layered anorthosite, gabbro, and ultramafic rocks such as peridotite and dunite. All these rocks occur in layered igneous complexes, which in their well-preserved state may be up to 2 km (1.2 miles) thick and 100 km (60 miles) long. Such complexes occur at Fiskenaesset in western Greenland, in the Limpopo belt of southern Africa, and in southern India. These complexes may have formed at an oceanic ridge in a magma chamber that also fed the basaltic lavas, or they may be parts of oceanic plateaus. In many cases, the complexes, basaltic amphibolites, and sediments were extensively intruded by the tonalites and granites that were later deformed and recrystallized. The result of this is that all of these rocks may now occur as metre-sized lenses in the orthogneisses and granulites.

Structure and occurrence of granulite-gneiss belts

The structure of the granulite-gneiss belts is extremely complex because the constituent rocks have been highly deformed several times. In all likelihood the basalts and layered complexes from the oceanic crust were interthrust with shallow-water limestones, sandstones, and shales; with tonalites and granites from Andean-type batholiths; and with older basement rocks from a continental margin. All these rocks, which are now mutually conformable (parallel to one another with uninterrupted deposition), were folded in horizontal nappes and then refolded. The picture that emerges is one of a very mobile Earth, where newly formed rocks were routinely compressed and thrust against other rocks.

Granulite-gneiss belts occur in a variety of environments. These may be extensive regions, such as the North Atlantic craton, which measures 1,000 by 2,000 km (about 620 by 1,240 miles) across and, before the opening of the Atlantic Ocean, was contiguous with the Scourian Complex of northwestern Scotland, the central part of Greenland, and the coast of Labrador; the Aldan and Ukrainian shields of continental Europe; the North China craton; large parts of the Superior province of Canada; the Yilgarn block in Australia; and the Limpopo belt in southern Africa. They may be confined to small areas such as the Ancient Gneiss Complex of Swaziland, the Minnesota River valley and the Beartooth Mountains of the United States, the Peninsular gneisses and Sargur supracrustals of southern India, the English River gneisses of Ontario in Canada that form a narrow strip between greenstone-granite belts, the Sand River gneisses that occupy a small area between greenstone-granite belts in Zimbabwe, and the Napier Complex in Enderby Land in Antarctica. Granulite-gneiss belts are commonly surrounded by younger, mostly Proterozoic belts that contain remobilized relicts of the Archean rocks, and the granulites and gneisses must underlie many Archean greenstone-granite belts and blankets of Phanerozoic sediment.

Age and correlation of granulite-gneiss belts

Isotopic age determinations from the granulite-gneiss belts record an evolution from about 4.0 to 2.5 billion years ago—more than a third of geologic time. Most important are the few but well-constrained age determinations of detrital zircons at Mount Narryer and Jack Hills in Western Australia that are more than 4 billion years old. Several regions have a history that began in the period dating from 3.9 to 3.6 billion years ago—western Greenland, Labrador, the Limpopo belt, Enderby Land, the North China craton, and the Aldan Shield. Most regions of the world experienced a major tectonic event that may have involved intrusion, metamorphism, and deformation during the period between 3.1 and 2.8 billion years ago; some of these regions, like the Scourian in northwestern Scotland, show no evidence of any older crustal growth. The best-documented region is in western Greenland, which has a long and complicated history from 3.85 to 2.5 billion years ago.

It is impossible to correlate the rocks in different granulite-gneiss belts. One granitic gneiss is essentially the same as another but may be of vastly different age. There is a marked similarity in the anorthosites in various belts throughout the world, and their similar relationship with the gneisses suggests that the belts have undergone comparable stages of evolution, although each has its own distinctive features. Little correlation can be made with rocks of Mesozoic-Cenozoic age because few modern orogenic belts have been eroded sufficiently to expose their mid-lower crust. The lack of modern analogues for comparison makes it particularly difficult to interpret the mode of origin and evolution of the Archean granulite-gneiss belts.