Ice, Fire, or Fizzle: The Climate Footprint of Earth's Supercontinental Cycles

Jellinek, M.; Lenardic, A.; Pierrehumbert, R.T.

doi:10.1029/2019gc008464

Cited by 21 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 284 publications

(581 reference statements)

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“…10.1029/2020TC006585 13 of 18 (Jellinek et al, 2020). The black curve is the prediction for the condition where the trapped mantle spreads faster than the descending slab girdle buoyancy flux carries this buoyancy flux away.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarks: Pangea Migration Subduction Girdle Instability And Pre-breakup Volcanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This result is governed mostly by where the warm upper mantle has sufficient buoyancy to spread faster than the descending lithosphere sinks (black curve in Figure 9). Extending the range of plate speeds to include the potentially higher rates during the initial phase of Pangea fragmentation (Jellinek et al, 2020) enables a more thorough analysis of Equation 1. In particular, this threshold temperature difference is comparatively less for prebreakup spreading rates less than around 1 cm/yr where V cont > V bend and relatively larger for syn-breakup spreading rates exceeding a few cm/yr where V cont < V bend .…”

Section: 1029/2020tc006585mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the formation of Pangea itself could lead to a similar effect. The initial formation of a subduction girdle (Figure 1) would lead to significant mass anomalies which, together with sub-Pangean thermal isolation (Jellinek et al, 2020;Lenardic et al, 2011), could provide the type of internal mantle loading that Creveling et al (2012) argued could drive a TPW event that would bring Pangea to the equator. Critically, it could lead to both Pangea and its subduction girdle moving toward the equator.…”

Section: The Tpw Of Pangea Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As mentioned above, the stationarity of Pangea lead to thermal isolation and sub-Pangean warming (Jellinek et al, 2020;Lenardic et al, 2011). These authors have proposed that, as a consequence, the long-term sea level change would record this evolution.…”

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confidence: 95%

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Pangea Migration

et al. 2021

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that Pangea and Panthalassa each occupied a whole hemisphere surrounded by a subduction zone girdle following a great circle (Figure 1). This configuration, thus, had an axis of symmetry. These authors further proposed that Pangea was stationary or moved very little with respect to the mantle and consequently, defined an absolute reference frame which is simply determined by the position of this axis of symmetry. Pangea first formed in the southern latitudes but migrated steadily northward until its axis of symmetry was within the equatorial plane 250 Ma. But, we first need to define what we call Pangea in this study. Restricting the name of Pangea to the continuous landmass that resulted from the amalgamation of all continental material, as is often done, is fraught with difficulties. For example, one might argue that Laurasia was not achieved when the North Atlantic break was initiated as the Khangai/Khantey ocean was not yet closed. Instead, in this study, we focus on the hemispheric subduction girdle. We consider that Pangea existed when all continental material was contained within the hemispheric subduction girdle. This is because the hemispheric constraint implied that continental material covered 80% of the surface of the hemisphere and the remaining 20% of oceanic space, mostly collected in one ocean called the Palaeo-Tethys, could be considered to be intracontinental. Further, the presence of a surrounding curtain of slabs down to at least 400 km depth led to stationarity, thermal isolation and associated sub-Pangean mantle warming (Lenardic et al., 2011). Thus, the whole hemisphere had very peculiar kinematic, thermal, and dynamic constraints as discussed by Le Pichon. During Pangea time, two hemispheres, one continental and the other oceanic, were separated by a subduction girdle that prevented mixing in the underlying mantle between the two hemispheres. The system was dynamically stable when the axis of symmetry was within the equatorial plane. An explanation for the formation of such a system may be given by the proposal by Zhong et al. (2007) that the supercontinent assembly may result from degree 1 planform convection. The supercontinent assembly, then, leads to degree-2 planform convection with antipodal upwelling and

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Section: Discussion and Concluding Remarks: Pangea Migration Subduction Girdle Instability And Pre-breakup Volcanismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 1029/2020tc006585mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Tpw Of Pangea Revisitedmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 95%

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Pangea Migration

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“…The supercontinents of the future can provide us some guidance on how surface temperatures will increase or decrease depending on how the continents are distributed, with implications for exoplanet climate and habitability. But there are other factors to consider related to weathering rates and volcanic outgassing (e.g., Jellinek et al., 2019), not to mention the related role of atmospheric pressure (Gaillard & Scaillet, 2014). We have also used a fixed atmospheric

{normalC normalO}_{2}

concentration in this paper to avoid introducing a further parameter that can add climate variability and, interesting as it would be, exploring the climate with a dynamic carbon cycle is left for future work.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Climates of Earth’s Next Supercontinent: Effects of Tectonics, Rotation Rate, and Insolation

Way

Davies

Duarte

et al. 2021

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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We explore two possible Earth climate scenarios, 200 and 250 million years into the future, using projections of the evolution of plate tectonics, solar luminosity, and rotation rate. In one scenario, a supercontinent forms at low latitudes, whereas in the other it forms at high northern latitudes with an Antarctic subcontinent remaining at the south pole. The climates between these two end points are quite stark, with differences in mean surface temperatures approaching several degrees. The main factor in these differences is related to the topographic height of the high latitude supercontinents where higher elevations promote snowfall and subsequent higher planetary albedos. These results demonstrate the need to consider multiple boundary conditions when simulating Earth‐like exoplanetary climates.

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