Earth's crust
The average age of Earth's continental crust is about 2.0 billion years. Most crustal rocks formed before 2.5 billion years ago are in cratons. Such old continental crust and the mantle below it are less dense than other places in the Earth. These are not easily destroyed when the plates shift. The making of new continental crust is linked to times of major orogeny or mountain building. This happens at the same time as the formation of the supercontinents such as Rodinia, Pangaea and Gondwana. The crust forms in part by the coming together of island arcs including granite and metamorphic fold belts. They are kept together partly by the subduction of the mantle below the crust, which makes a mantle on which the crust can float.