ABSTRACT
The ocean basins are geologically young. The Pacific Ocean basin is the oldest existing ocean basin on earth, with crustal rocks dating back about 200 million years. While new ocean crust forms continuously at seafloor spreading centers, old ocean crust is destroyed at subduction zones. In contrast, the stable cratonic interior of the continental lithosphere is much older than ocean crust. 1 For example, cratons occurring within the continental lithosphere date back billions of years.
