Abstract: Plate tectonics has been regarded as the dominant tectonic regime on the earth today, but what was earth’s tectonic regime before the present plate tectonics began and when the present plate tectonics began are still controversial. To understand the evolution of earth and predict its future, we are required to clarify this question. Previously, researchers generally reached a consensus on an uniformitarian view that the early earth’s tectonics was similar to the present plate tectonics. However, with the accumulation of geological data and the progress of research technology, the idea of the transition from stagnant lid tectonics to modern plate tectonics was increasingly accepted. The so called “stagnant lid” refers to single plate around earth surface. In this paper, firstly we review the hypothesis of possible tectonic regime models in the early Earth under the background of stagnant lid tectonics, including heat pipe tectonics, plutonic-squishy lid model, mantle overturn and lid-and-plate tectonics. Then we review the latest research of the transition from stagnant lid tectonics to plate tectonics in early Earth. We believe that the mainstream researchers have reached a roughly consistent framework, that is, the transition from stagnant lid tectonics to plate tectonics occurred in the Meso-Neoarchean, and the modern plate tectonics may have formed in the Neoproterozoic.

Key words: tectonic regime in early earth, stagnant lid, plate tectonics, tectonic regime evolution