Vaalbara, Earth's oldest assembled continent? A combined structural, geochronological, and palaeomagnetic test

The only remaining areas of pristine 3.6-2.7 Ga crust on Earth are parts of the Kaapvaal and Pillbara cratons. General similarities of their rock reco rds, especially of the overlying late Archean sequences, suggest that they were once part of a larger Vaalbara supercontinent. Here we show that the p resent geochronological, structural and palaeomagnetic data support such a Vaalbara model at least as far back as 3.1 Ga, and possibly further back to 3.6 Ga, Vaalbara fragmented prior to 2.1 Ga, and possibly as early as 2.7 Ga, suggesting supercontinent stability of at least 400 Myr, consistent wit h Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic analogues.