Summary
The oldest and most stable parts of the Earth’s continents are called cratons. When continents break-up, or rift, these stable crustal areas split apart and allow magma to rise from Earth’s deep interior. This forms new crust. When this happens, reservoirs of economically valuable volatile elements like helium and hydrogen get stuck underneath the craton, forming a reservoir. Geologically important volatiles like carbon dioxide also get stuck, but how and why this happens is not well understood. When cratons eventually break apart, these gases are released to the atmosphere and have potentiall
