Archean cratons, characterized by extensive granite–greenstone assemblages, represent the oldest preserved nuclei of Earth’s continental lithosphere. These ancient terrains are surrounded and overlain by coeval or younger sedimentary successions that provide critical insights related to the evolution of continental crust, seawater chemistry, early oxygenation events, and the primary biosignatures. The processes of craton formation, stabilization, and subsequent growth, marked a step change in Earth’s history. It remains as the primary archive of the first two billion years of coeval crust-mantle evolution, surface chemistry conditions and geodynamics (e.g., seawater chemistry, emergence of continental crust). The existing geodynamic regimes in the early Earth also played a critical role in co-evolution of the Earth's deep mantle and surface reservoirs. However, our understanding remains fragmentary due to the scarcity of global datasets owing to limited preservation of Archean rocks. The latter is largely affected by resetting by later geological events such as metamorphism and/or tectonic overprinting.
To unravel the earliest evolution of our planet, integrated and multidisciplinary approaches are essential. Isotope and elemental geochemistry, high-precision geochronology, petrology combined with geodynamic modelling will provide unique insights into the processes that shaped Earth’s earliest reservoirs. We welcome contributions from related disciplines that apply both established and innovative interdisciplinary approach towards addressing fundamental questions about pressing topics such as the differentiation and secular evolution of Earth’s crust and mantle, early reworking of the crust, transitionary stages of the ancient oceans and the nature of early tectonic regimes. These holistic studies will shed light on Earth's early formation, evolution, and transformation, revealing how initial habitable conditions were established and offering insights into ancient, possibly eroded, reservoirs.