When did plate tectonics begin on planet Earth? / Когда на планете Земля началась тектоника плит

Planet Earth is unique in many ways from the other silicate-metal planets in the solar system. In addition to oceans and an atmosphere that contains oxygen, Earth is the only planet that exhibits plate tectonics. Plate tectonics appears to be the result of convective cooling of the mantle, although the gravitational pull of subducted slabs probably drives plate motions (Conrad and Lithgrow-Bertelloni, 2002). Plate tectonics includes sites of plate formation at ocean ridges and sites of recycling into the mantle, which today are at subduction zones. Although geodynamic models support coherent plates throughout Earth history, just when and how plates became negatively buoyant is not yet clear. This is partly due to our uncertainty about the early thermal history of the mantle. Was the mantle hotter than at present, as generally assumed, or was it the same temperature (or even lower) due to enhanced rates of convective cooling during the early Archean? This leads to the question of how we track modern-style plate tectonics back in time. <...>