On the crumpling and repaving of the North American continent
Authors: Wilkinson Bruce H. , Perez Consuegra Nicolas 
Published: September 2023

At perhaps the coarsest scale of consideration, the rock cycle operates through fluxes associated with tectonic uplift and erosion, which are generally balanced by subsidence/subduction and the burial of mineral materials that leads to volumetric balance among the principal rock reservoirs. At Earth’s surface, net rates of transfer are manifest as the reduction of areas of older rocks during erosional destruction as well as during burial by younger units. Because exposure of continental crust comprises some finite space, decrease of older rock area by erosion and/or burial must be largely balanced by an increase in area of new sedimentary and volcanic successions. Here, we examine relations between the lateral extents of rock units exposed across North America—their lithology, elevation, and the age of formation—to determine rates of geologic “repaving” that are recorded in the age and area of rocks making up the surface of the continent. Moreover, because deposition occurs at lower elevations, one might expect that subsequent episodes of uplift and/or burial would serve to increase the average elevation of currently exposed sedimentary lithosomes. Because plutonic and metamorphic rocks form at depth and are only exposed along orogenic belts and across shields after extended intervals of uplift and/or erosion, one might expect basement rocks to be initially exposed at higher elevations, and that subsequent erosion would decrease elevation with increasing age. Therefore, processes giving rise to associations between outcrop lithology, extent, and elevation may serve as measures of continent-scale rates of rock cycling.

We combine data from the 1 arc-minute global relief model with data from the Geological Society of America’s 2005 Geologic Map of North America to assess the actuality and significance of first-order relations among the lithologies, areas, ages, and elevations of rock bodies now exposed across the North American continent and how these may shed light on deep-time rates of rock cycling.

Areas of the 23,642 mapped North American lithosomes make up a lognormal frequency distribution (mode = 121 km2). This distribution reflects both natural (lateral extents of individual map units must be limited in space) and anthropogenic (cartographers must render map units within limited range of sizes) causes. Contiguous, lateral associations of the major rock types suggest that the spatial occurrence of volcanic and sedimentary rock bodies is largely independent of the proximity of other rock types, but exposures of plutonic and metamorphic lithosomes are intimately associated in space and thus comprise the “crystalline basement” exposed in cores of younger orogens and across the Canadian Shield.

Unlike sedimentary and volcanic rocks that “attain their age” when formed at Earth’s surface, plutonic and metamorphic units are “born” at depth and therefore must have reached some antiquity prior to first exposure. As a result, the ages of volcanic and sedimentary exposures span the full range of ages represented by all lithologies, while those of plutonic and metamorphic suites are more abbreviated and older. Median ages of North American volcanic, sedimentary, plutonic, and metamorphic exposures are 482 Ma, 306 Ma, 1695 Ma, and 2467 Ma, respectively. Although the areal extent of sedimentary rock decreases with increasing age, elevation increases. This change is interpreted as reflecting progressive tectonic uplift from initial accumulation at lower elevations. In contrast, the surfaces of exposed volcanic, plutonic, and metamorphic lithosomes become lower in elevation with increasing age. This change reflects both the erosional lowering of lithosome surfaces as well as the progressive exhumation of larger areas of crystalline basement.

Exposed rock area exhibits a power law decrease with increasing age. This change reflects the progressive destruction of older units and their burial by younger units. A simple “repaving” model in which 0.8% area is uplifted and eroded per million years is in good agreement with observed relations of map age versus area, the rate of which is equivalent to the resurfacing of the North American continent every 63 m.y. or ∼56 times over the past 3.5 Ga. The rate of decrease in map area of exposed rocks with increasing age evident in both geologic map data and repaving models is about three times the rate of decrease in total sediment volume as determined from stratigraphic data and repaving models. The decrease in the areas of exposed rock units is primarily the result of burial by younger units rather than erosive destruction.