Mantle uplift explains the Great Unconformity

New Nature research uses mantle‑convection models (run on Australia’s Gadi supercomputer) to show that deep‑Earth heat‑driven uplift raised continental blocks (Laurentia, Baltica, North China) between ~1,000–540 million years ago, exposing them to extensive glacial scouring that removed up to a billion years of surface rock—the so‑called Great Unconformity. The proposed mechanism ties solid‑Earth dynamics to surface erosion, Cryogenian ice sheets, and possible seawater chemistry changes before the Cambrian explosion. — If true, this links interior geodynamics to global environmental change and the conditions for early animal evolution, changing how we frame Earth system interactions across deep time.