The history of the growth of continental crust is uncertain, and several different models that involve a gradual, decelerating, or stepwise process have been proposed. Even more uncertain is the timing and the secular trend of the emergence of most landmasses above the sea (subaerial landmasses), with estimates ranging from about one billion to three billion years ago. The area of emerged crust influences global climate feedbacks and the supply of nutrients to the oceans , and therefore connects Earth's crustal evolution to surface environmental conditions. Here we use the triple-oxygen-isotope composition of shales from all continents, spanning 3.7 billion years, to provide constraints on the emergence of continents over time. Our measurements show a stepwise total decrease of 0.08 per mille in the average triple-oxygen-isotope value of shales across the Archaean-Proterozoic boundary. We suggest that our data are best explained by a shift in the nature of water-rock interactions, from near-coastal in the Archaean era to predominantly continental in the Proterozoic, accompanied by a decrease in average surface temperatures. We propose that this shift may have coincided with the onset of a modern hydrological cycle owing to the rapid emergence of continental crust with near-modern average elevation and aerial extent roughly 2.5 billion years ago.

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We present stable isotope and chemical data for 206 Precambrian bulk shale and tillite samples that were collected mostly from drillholes on all continents and span the age range from 0.5 to 3.5 Ga with a dense coverage for 2.5-2.2 Ga time interval when Earth experienced four Snowball Earth glaciations and the irreversible rise in atmospheric O 2. We observe significant, downward shift of several ‰ and a smaller range of δ 18 O values (7 to 9‰) in shales that are associated with the Paleoproterozoic and, potentially, Neoproterozoic glaciations. The Paleoproterozoic samples consist of more than 50% mica minerals and have equal or higher chemical index of alteration than overlying and underlying formations and thus underwent equal or greater degrees of chemical weathering. Their pervasively low δ 18 O and δD (down to-85‰) values provide strong evidence of alteration and diagenesis in contact with ultra-low δ 18 O glacial meltwaters in lacustrine, deltaic or periglacial lake (sikussak-type) environments associated with the Paleoproterozoic glaciations. The δD silicate values for the rest of Precambrian shales range from-75 to-50‰ and are comparable to those for Phanerozoic and Archean

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