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The fluctuations in abundance of passive margins track the first-order fluctuations of the independently derived seawater 87 Sr/ 86 Sr secular curve, and the compilation thus appears to be robust. The 76 ancient passive margins for which lifespans could be measured have a mean lifespan of 181 m.y. The world-record holder, with a lifespan of 590 m.y., is the Mesoproterozoic eastern margin of the Siberian craton. Subdivided into natural age groups, mean lifespans are 186 m.y. for the Archean to Paleoproterozoic, 394 m.y. for the Mesoproterozoic, 180 m.y. for the Neoproterozoic, 137 m.y. for the Cambrian to Carboniferous, and 130 m.y. for the Permian to Neogene. The present-day passive margins, which are not yet finished with their lifespans, have a mean age of 104 m.y. and a maximum age of 180 m.y. On average, Precambrian margins thus had longer, not shorter, lifespans than Phanerozoic ones-and this remains the case even discounting all post-300 Ma margins, most of which have time left. Longer lifespans deeper in the past is at odds with the widely held notion that the tempo of plate tectonics was faster in the Precambrian than at present. It is entirely consistent, however, with recent modeling by Korenaga [Korenaga, J., 2004. Archean geodynamics and thermal evolution of Earth. Archean Geodynamics and Environments, AGU Geophysical Monograph Series 164, 7-32], which showed that plate tectonics was more sluggish in the Precambrian. The abundance of passive margins clearly tracks the assembly, tenure, and breakup of Pangea. Earlier parts of the hypothesized supercontinent cycle, however, are only partly consistent with the documented abundance of passive margins. The passive-margin record is not obviously consistent with the proposed breakup of Nuna (Columbia), the assembly of Rodinia, or the assembly or breakup of the putative Pannotia. An alternative model is put forth involving (a) formation of two or more supercratons during the late Paleoproterozoic, (b) a Mesoproterozoic interval dominated by lateral accretion of arcs rather than by continental breakup and dispersal, (c) wholesale collision to form Rodinia by the end of the Mesoproterozoic, and (d) staged breakup of Rodinia through much of the Neoproterozoic.

Onshore evidence suggests that a plate is missing from published reconstructions of the northeastern Pacific Ocean in Paleocene-Eocene time. The Resurrection plate, named for the Resurrection Peninsula ophiolite near Seward, Alaska, was located east of the Kula plate and north of the Farallon plate. We interpret coeval near-trench magmatism in southern Alaska and the Cascadia margin as evidence for two slab windows associated with trench-ridgetrench (TRT) triple junctions, which formed the western and southern boundaries of the Resurrection plate. In Alaska, the Sanak-Baranof belt of near-trench intrusions records a west-to-east migration, from 61 to 50 Ma, of the northern TRT triple junction along a 2100-km-long section of coastline. In Oregon, Washington, and southern Vancouver Island, voluminous basaltic volcanism of the Siletz River Volcanics, Crescent Formation, and Metchosin Volcanics occurred between ca. 66 and 48 Ma. Lack of a clear age progression of magmatism along the Cascadia margin suggests that this southern triple junction did not migrate significantly. Synchronous near-trench magmatism from southeastern Alaska to Puget Sound at ca. 50 Ma documents the middle Eocene subduction of a spreading center, the crest of which was subparallel to the margin. We interpret this ca.

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