Geodynamic Cycles and Geodynamic Systems of Various Ranks:
Their Relationships and Evolution in the Earths History

V. E. Khain^a and M. A. Goncharov^b

^aGeological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Pyzhevskii per. 7, Moscow, 119017 Russia

^bFaculty of Geology, Moscow State University, Vorob’evy gory, Moscow, 119899 Russia

e-mail: gonch@dynamo.geol.msu.ru

Received January 23, 2006

Abstract—The previously stated ideas of hierarchical geodynamic cyclicity [42] and geodynamics of hierar-
chically subordinate geospheres [13] are compared in detail. The convective geodynamic system of the first
rank (GS-1) that functions throughout the mantle and crust beneath the entire surface of the Earth corresponds
to the geodynamic cycle of the first rank (GC-1, or the Wilson cycle). The geodynamic system of the second
rank (GS-2) that embraces the mantle and crust only beneath oceans corresponds to the geodynamic cycle of
the second rank (GC-2, or the Bertrand cycle). The geodynamic system of the third rank (GS-3) functioning in
the tectonosphere (asthenosphere + lithosphere) in zones of elevated heat flow (spreading, subduction, and col-
lision zones) is brought into the line with the geodynamic cycle of the third rank (GC-3, or the Stille cycle). The
geodynamic system of the fourth rank (GS-4) that embraces the sedimentary cover of mobile belts corresponds
to the geodynamic cycle of the fourth rank (GC-4) (the phase cycle of increasing and decreasing intensity of
folding and thrusting). This hierarchy controlled by internal endogenic factors, above all, by the heat flow from
the Earth’s core and internal sources within the mantle, is supplemented by the geodynamic system of the zeroth
rank (GS-0) that embraces the entire Earth and that is controlled by external rotational factors, primarily, the
tidal effect of the Moon. The GS-0 is characterized by interference of the permanent westward and meridional
(southward and northward, alternately) continental drift in frames of the zeroth geodynamic cycle (GC-0) twice
as long as the Wilson cycle (GC-1). An attempt is made to connect cyclicity of various ranks with periodic exci-
tation and waning of convection in a geosphere of the respective rank. The convective geospheres progressively
grew downward in the course of geologic history. Only the GS-3 functioned in the Archean, embracing tectono-
sphere and creating greenstone belts around the gray-gneiss islands with gradual accretion of these belts and
the formation of the granite–greenstone continent (Pangea-0). In the Paleoproterozoic, the process spread over
the entire upper mantle with switching Rayleigh–Benard polygonal convection expressed in pure form as gran-
ulite belts along the polygon perimeters that bounded the protoplatform blocks. The contemporaneous limited
convection in the lower mantle (GS-1) led to some divergence of these blocks and formation of minor oceans
and their subsequent closure, resulting in the formation of Pangea-1. This tendency developed further in the
Mesoproterozoic and completed with the formation of Pangea-2 (Rodinia). Afterward, in the Neogean, the
cyclic–hierarchical geodynamics started to work in full as described above.

DOI: 10.1134/S0016852106050013

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