This is an interesting idea - To compliment your article I thought I'd relate what is the current thought as to what happened (By the way I would suggest that the book Assembling California is excellent reading - either that or Annals of a Former World which incorporates this book - Both can be found in our online Bookstore: http://www.earthwaves.org/books.html )

During the Proterozoic Eon which was from 2.5 Billion to 544 Million years ago a more modern style of plate tectonics and sedimentation began to be prevalent - so here the 2 thoughts agree.

The Cratons that make up the core of the continents had already developed in the Archean period and had welded together in the Proterozoic to form a large continent called Laurentia. A good site to see various earth periods is: http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm - this consolidation was completed by about 1.7 Billion years ago. Laurentia continued to grow as a result of accretionary events - or as island arcs crashed into the land mass or sedimentation occurred. These island arcs crashing into the continents would have left evidence in the form of the ophiolites.

Some of the oldest known continental crust is 3.46 billion years old in Australia. Evidence of land above sea level is seen in a 3.46 billion year old erosional unconformity containing a fossil soil recently discovered in Australia's arid Pilbara region. This is the oldest known landform and is clear evidence that subaerial weathering and erosion were at work early in the Archean. It is apparent that Earth had acquired patches of continental crust a few hundred million years after its formation.

But how did they form and grow? Some think they originated at subduction zones where slabs of sediment covered mafic crust plunged into the mantle, there to be partially melted to released felsic components (continental crust) or the coming together of 2 tectonic plates bearing felsic crust. Then further growth as island arcs and microcontinents came together along subduction zones and continent-to-continent collisions like India and Eurasia. And then further growth from weathering and erosion deposits more sediments and the cycle continues.

Also we went from an oxygen poor atmosphere to an oxygen rich atmosphere in the Archean - There are 2 processes that are thought to have occurred - first the dissociation of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen in the upper atmosphere (assisted by high radiotion of the sun) and Photosynthesis. We think we know when Oxygen became rich in the atmosphere because that's when Banded Iron formations (ferric oxides) first appeared (I picked up a nice sample at Quartszite!) - 3 Billion years ago to 1.8 Billion is the age of Banded to unbanded Irons - Only the presence of oxygen could have formed this.

So according to the article the timing is a bit off - To be fair I should read what Moores actually said in the paper and not some reporter!

Information above taken from The Earth Through Time by Harold Levin