Towards absolute plate motions constrained by lower-mantle slab remnants

Meer, Douwe G. van der; Spakman, Wim; Hinsbergen, Douwe J.J. van; Amaru, Maisha; Torsvik, Trond H.

doi:10.1038/ngeo708

Cited by 364 publications

(373 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…S4 and S5), apart from a small shift due to their slightly differing absolute reference frames. van der Meer et al [2010] suggest a westward shift of the reference frame peaking at 18° at 150 Ma. Applying a corresponding shift to the dipole and quadrupole locations would move divergent quadrupoles closer to the LLSVP centers.…”

Section: Extension Of the Torsvik Et Al [2010] Reconstruction Back Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics

Conrad

Steinberger

Torsvik

2013

Nature

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flow on the lithospheric base may be a primary driver of plate motions 1-3 and thus directly link 55 surface tectonics to interior dynamics. We can exploit this link for past times by utilizing tectonic 56 reconstructions of plate motions, which are becoming increasingly better constrained 8,9 , to infer 57 patterns of past mantle flow. We achieve this by examining the net properties of plate motions, 58 which should reflect the "average" response of Earth's lithosphere to long-wavelength viscous 59 mantle flow. Previously, net rotation of the lithosphere (Fig 1a) has been linked to present-day 60 mantle flow 14 , but its utility for past times 8 may be limited because observations of net rotation 61 are highly dependent on the choice of mantle reference frame. By contrast, the relative motions 62 between plates are less dependent on reference frame and are of larger amplitude than net 63 rotation rates. To exploit these attributes, we define several new metrics of relative plate motions 64 that are useful for constraining the interaction between plate tectonics and mantle flow, and 65 apply them to published reconstructions of plate motions both for present and past times. 66 67We defined three new "net characteristics" of plate motions by performing different integrations 68 4 of the tectonic plate motion vector field over the surface of the earth (see methods). The plate 69 tectonic dipole vector D defines a "net convergence pole" toward which plates are moving in an 70 average sense away from an antipodal "net divergence pole" (Fig. 1b). The plate tectonic 71 quadrupole, defined by the quadrupole deformation matrix Q (see methods), describes a 2 nd 72 order pattern of net plate motions associated with net hemispheric convergence toward two 73 antipodal "positive" poles and divergence away from two antipodal "negative" poles located 90° 74 away from the positive quadrupoles (Fig. 1c). This quadrupole motion occurs as revolution about 75 two intermediate null poles (Fig. 1c). Plate tectonic net stretching, defined by deformation matrix 76 S (see methods), describes convergence toward the two null poles of the quadrupole and 77 divergence away from an equator midway between them (Fig. 1d). These net characteristics 78 describe plate motions at the largest scales; they are influenced by both rapid regional-scale (e.g., 79northwestern North American convergence) and gradual global-scale deformations (e.g., the 80 circum-Africa ridge system), but are dominated by the longest-wavelength large amplitude 81 deformations. 82 83We computed these net characteristics for present-day plate motions (Fig. 2a) and for vector 84 fields associated with two major plate-driving forces: slab pull and basal shear tractions (Fig. 85 2b). The relevant pole locations for all three net characteristics (D, Q, and S) are approximately 86 co-located for both plate motions and plate-driving forces. For example, dipole convergence of 87 plate tectonics occurs in eastern Asia, dominated by convergent motion of the Pacific, 88Australian,...

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Section: Extension Of the Torsvik Et Al [2010] Reconstruction Back Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics

Conrad

Steinberger

Torsvik

2013

Nature

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“…4A), generally interpreted as a result of Cretaceous intraoceanic subduction (40,42). Aitchison et al (28) suggested that this anomaly resulted from intraoceanic subduction that terminated with ophiolite obduction onto the leading edge of Greater India.…”

Section: Subduction History and Mantle Tomographymentioning

confidence: 99%

Greater India Basin hypothesis and a two-stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia

Hinsbergen

Lippert

Dupont‐Nivet

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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595

526

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Cenozoic convergence between the Indian and Asian plates produced the archetypical continental collision zone comprising the Himalaya mountain belt and the Tibetan Plateau. How and where India-Asia convergence was accommodated after collision at or before 52 Ma remains a long-standing controversy. Since 52 Ma, the two plates have converged up to 3,600 AE 35 km, yet the upper crustal shortening documented from the geological record of Asia and the Himalaya is up to approximately 2,350-km less. Here we show that the discrepancy between the convergence and the shortening can be explained by subduction of highly extended continental and oceanic Indian lithosphere within the Himalaya between approximately 50 and 25 Ma. Paleomagnetic data show that this extended continental and oceanic "Greater India" promontory resulted from 2,675 AE 700 km of North-South extension between 120 and 70 Ma, accommodated between the Tibetan Himalaya and cratonic India. We suggest that the approximately 50 Ma "India"-Asia collision was a collision of a Tibetan-Himalayan microcontinent with Asia, followed by subduction of the largely oceanic Greater India Basin along a subduction zone at the location of the Greater Himalaya. The "hard" India-Asia collision with thicker and contiguous Indian continental lithosphere occurred around 25-20 Ma. This hard collision is coincident with far-field deformation in central Asia and rapid exhumation of Greater Himalaya crystalline rocks, and may be linked to intensification of the Asian monsoon system. This two-stage collision between India and Asia is also reflected in the deep mantle remnants of subduction imaged with seismic tomography.continent-continent collision | mantle tomography | plate reconstructions | Cretaceous T he present geological boundary between India and Asia is marked by the Indus-Yarlung suture zone, which contains deformed remnants of the ancient Neotethys Ocean (1, 2) (Fig. 1). North of the Indus-Yarlung suture is the southernmost continental fragment of Asia, the Lhasa block. South of the suture lies the Himalaya, composed of (meta)sedimentary rocks that were scraped off now-subducted Indian continental crust and mantle lithosphere and thrust southward over India during collision. The highest structural unit of the Himalaya is overlain by fragments of oceanic lithosphere (ophiolites).We apply the common term Greater India to refer to the part of the Indian plate that has been subducted underneath Tibet since the onset of Cenozoic continental collision. A 52 Ma minimum age of collision between northernmost Greater India and the Lhasa block is constrained by 52 Ma sedimentary rocks in the northern, "Tibetan" Himalaya that include detritus from the Lhasa block (3). This collision age is consistent with independent paleomagnetic evidence for overlapping paleolatitudes for the Tibetan Himalaya and the Lhasa blocks at 48.6 AE 6.2 Ma ( Fig. 2; SI Text) as well as with an abrupt decrease in India-Asia convergence rates beginning at 55-50 Ma, as demonstrated by India-Asia plate circuits ...

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“…By imaging subducted slabs deep in the mantle, which attest to whole-mantle convection and stirring, seismic tomography indicates that the latter is true on planet Earth (Grand et al, 1997;van der Meer et al, 2010). Although compositional heterogeneity has been identified in the lowermost mantle and is potentially linked to MO freezing processes (Garnero and McNamara, 2008;Hernlund and McNamara, 2015;Tackley, 2012), it does not exceed ~3% of the mantle's volume (Hernlund and Houser, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reconciling magma‐ocean crystallization models with the present‐day structure of the Earth's mantle

Ballmer

Lourenço

Hirose

et al. 2017

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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Terrestrial planets are thought to experience episode(s) of large‐scale melting early in their history. Fractionation during magma‐ocean freezing leads to unstable stratification within the related cumulate layers due to progressive iron enrichment upward, but the effects of incremental cumulate overturns during MO crystallization remain to be explored. Here, we use geodynamic models with a moving‐boundary approach to study convection and mixing within the growing cumulate layer, and thereafter within the fully crystallized mantle. For fractional crystallization, cumulates are efficiently stirred due to subsequent incremental overturns, except for strongly iron‐enriched late‐stage cumulates, which persist as a stably stratified layer at the base of the mantle for billions of years. Less extreme crystallization scenarios can lead to somewhat more subtle stratification. In any case, the long‐term preservation of at least a thin layer of extremely enriched cumulates with Fe# > 0.4, as predicted by all our models, is inconsistent with seismic constraints. Based on scaling relationships, however, we infer that final‐stage Fe‐rich magma‐ocean cumulates originally formed near the surface should have overturned as small diapirs, and hence undergone melting and reaction with the host rock during sinking. The resulting moderately iron‐enriched metasomatized/hybrid rock assemblages should have accumulated at the base of the mantle, potentially fed an intermittent basal magma ocean, and be preserved through the present‐day. Such moderately iron‐enriched rock assemblages can reconcile the physical properties of the large low shear‐wave velocity provinces in the present‐day lower mantle. Thus, we reveal Hadean melting and rock‐reaction processes by integrating magma‐ocean crystallization models with the seismic‐tomography snapshot.

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Towards absolute plate motions constrained by lower-mantle slab remnants

Cited by 364 publications

References 26 publications

Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics

Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics

Greater India Basin hypothesis and a two-stage Cenozoic collision between India and Asia

Reconciling magma‐ocean crystallization models with the present‐day structure of the Earth's mantle

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