Bahlburg, HeinrichKemp, Anthony I.S.Fanning, C. MarkMartin, L.2025-05-232025-05-230012-8252http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85217949522&partnerID=8YFLogxKhttps://hdl.handle.net/1885/733751322The southwestern margin of Amazonia hosted accretionary orogens for most of the past 2 Ga. A succession of accretionary mountain belts evolved from 2 Ga to 1 Ga, they are here informally grouped in the Terra Amazonica Orogen. It occupies large tracts of the Amazonian Shield, is poorly exposed and often inaccessible. Its evolution ended when Amazonia collided with Laurentia at 1 Ga in Rodinia. After the dispersal of Rodinia, an accretionary margin was re-established by 0.65 Ga, starting the proto-Andean accretionary Terra Australis Orogen. Large volumes of polycyclic detritus derived ultimately from the Terra Amazonica Orogen was trapped in the sedimentary basins of the Terra Australis Orogen. Using this detritus we assess the crustal evolution of both orogens with new zircon U-Pb age (n = 12,752), Hf isotope (n = 5502) and O isotope (igneous n = 855, detrital n = 957) databases for zircons including our own new analyses and literature data. For the Terra Amazonica Orogen three subcycles of zircon εHf(t) values define a cumulative trend from strongly unradiogenic to radiogenic values. In accretionary orogens, such trends indicate the progressive removal of lower crust and lithospheric mantle of the upper plate during subduction and their replacement by new radiogenic crust. Early Neoproterozoic rifting of Rodinia registered a drop in mean εHf(t) values by eleven units from +4 to −7. This is superseded by a two-step increase to values between 0 and + 5 after the inception of the active margin of the Terra Australis Orogen, registering one large cycle with two subcycles from negative to positive values typical of accretionary orogens. Zircon δ18O data show a flat mean trend at slightly elevated values of 6.3 ‰ over the first 800 Myr of the Terra Amazonica Orogen, increasing to ca. 7.3 ‰ towards collision with Laurentia. Encompassing the Terra Amazonica Orogen and Neoproterozoic rifting, mean δ18O from detrital zircons is consistently lower than the igneous mean, indicating a wider distribution of mantle-like rocks than previously considered. δ18O of the Terra Australis Orogen trends from supracrustal 8 ‰ to more mantle-like values around 6.5 ‰, paralleling the accretionary orogen trend from unradiogenic to radiogenic εHf(t) values. Global zircon δ18O data suggest a gradual increase of δ18O after 2.5 Ga connected to the progressive hydration and intra-crustal reworking of the continental crust. Our data register the sudden appearance of elevated δ18O values up to 10 ‰ at 2.5 Ga. Amazonia has been an independently drifting entity with an active margin at least from the late Archean to the collision with Laurentia. δ18O values up to 10 ‰ at 2.5 Ga may have appeared because the upper crust of Amazonia had already experienced alteration and crustal recycling at an accretionary margin since long before 2.5 Ga. The Amazonian and proto-Andean detrital zircon age record is statistically similar to the global record. We argue that large scale continent-wide sedimentary reworking of detritus results in efficient mixing of the detrital zircon age records of accretionary and collisional orogens. We conclude that the global detrital zircon age record represents the averaged record of the successive supercontinent cycles.HB did most of the conceptual work, data synthesis and initial interpretation while on sabbatical at the Center for Exploration Targeting, School of Earth Sciences at the University of Western Australia (UWA), Perth. Financial support from the Gledden Short Stay Fellowship Award at UWA , and from the Heinrich-Hertz-Stiftung , D\u00FCsseldorf, grant no. B31 Nr. 10/19 , are gratefully acknowledged. This contribution is not the product of a particular research grant to HB but rather of many different grants. Financial support by the German Research Foundation (DFG) over many years is gratefully acknowledged. Zircon Hf isotope measurements were undertaken at UWA with instrumentation funded by the Australian Research Council ( LE100100203 and LE150100013 ). We thank Paula Castillo, M\u00FCnster, for very insightful comments on early versions of this contribution. We appreciate the constructive comments by reviewers Peter Cawood, Melbourne, and David Chew, Dublin.en© 2025 The AuthorsAccretionary orogensAmazoniaContinental growthEvolution of the continental crustTerra Australis orogenZircon age recordZircon Hf isotopesZircon O isotopes202510.1016/j.earscirev.2025.10506885217949522