Plate tectonics conserves angular momentum

Abstract

Abstract.A new combined understanding of plate tectonics, Earth internal structure, and the role of impulse in deformation of the Earth's crust is presented. Plate accelerations and decelerations have been revealed by iterative filtering of the quaternion history for the Euler poles that define absolute plate motion history for the past 68 million years, and provide an unprecedented precision for plate angular rotation variations with time at 2-million year intervals. Stage poles represent the angular rotation of a plate's motion between adjacent Euler poles, and from which the maximum velocity vector for a plate can be determined. The consistent maximum velocity variations, in turn, yield consistent estimates of plate accelerations and decelerations. The fact that the Pacific plate was shown to accelerate and decelerate, implied that conservation of plate tectonic angular momentum must be globally conserved, and that is confirmed by the results shown here (total angular momentum ∼1.4 +27 kg m 2 s −1 ).

Phase change in subducted lithosphere, impulse, and quantizing Earth surface deformations

“…From ages of dredged samples, they estimated Euler poles at 4 and 2 Myr intervals. Figure 9, from Bowin and Kuiper (2005) using the Harada and Hamano (2000) Euler poles, had the Pacific Plate speeding up as it moved northward toward the Aleutians, then after the bend slowed down, and then again increased speed as it moved towards the Marianas (away from Hawaii).…”

Quantizing Earth surface deformations

“…1), but also to make a preliminary numerical magnitude classification of Earth surface deformations. The first development step was adopting the use of ratios of gravity over geoid (g/N) values at anomaly centers to estimate an equivalent point-mass depth and mass of the causative mass anomalies (Bowin, 2000). The Earth's power spectrum has a sharp reduction in slope after degree 3.…”

“…6 and 4-10). A third development was then the new finding that the tectonic plates of the Earth very slowly accelerate and decelerate at rates that are about 10 −8 times smaller than plate velocities (Bowin and Kuiper, 2005;Bowin, 2009Bowin, , 2010, whereas previously the consensus had been that there appeared to have been no net torque amongst the fourteen, or so, principal Earth plates (e.g. Gripp and Gordon, 2002).…”

“…That Gripp and Gordon paper also cataloged the absolute motion Euler pole locations of each plate at 2 my intervals over the past 62 myrs. Using those results Bowin (2010) was then able to demonstrated that if a plate were to slow down, then other plates would have to speed up, so that globally, plate tectonics conserves angular momentum (∼ 1.4 × 10 27 kg m 2 s −1 ). This angular momentum for the Earth's plate tectonic system is much smaller than that of the Earth/moon system (2.88 × 10 34 kg m 2 s −1 ), and, is in turn, comparable to the much greater angular momentum of our solar system (8.95 × 10 43 kg m 2 s −1 ).…”

“…Bowin (2010) demonstrated that plate tectonics conserves angular momentum using the 14 major tectonic plate history of the Earth (except the Juan de Fuca and Philippine plates). Euler stage pole histories the past 62 million years of…”