Voyage of the Indian subcontinent since Pangea breakup and driving force of supercontinent cycles: Insights on dynamics from numerical modeling

On mantle drag force for the formation of a next supercontinent as estimated from a numerical simulation model of global mantle convection

“…However, it can be evaluated by the mantle drag force from each model. The tensional stress field with a magnitude in the order of 100 MPa is concentrated at the base of the interior of the future supercontinent, because it is formed above a large‐scale mantle downwelling and is pulled down in the mantle interior following a previously proposed scenario of the supercontinental cycle (Heron & Lowman, ; Yoshida & Santosh, , ). The maximum absolute magnitude of the tensional and compressional stress acting at the base of the moving continents is in the order of 100 MPa, which is comparable to a typical value of the slab pull force.…”

“…Based on the geological and geophysical evidence, the supercontinent cycle of the real Earth is thought to be 500–700 Ma (Evans et al., ) or 700–800 Ma (Meert, ), which is probably related to the temporal scale of mantle convection (Figure ) (Heron & Lowman, ; Yoshida & Santosh, , ). The present numerical results show that a supercontinent composed of all or almost all of the continental blocks tends to form within ~300 to 500 Ma from the present, which is comparable to the geologically proposed supercontinent cycle for earth in the past (i.e.…”

“…Formation of the next supercontinent is a much‐discussed topic in earth science in the light of recent abundant geological evidence and advances in numerical modelling (e.g. Battersby, ; Davies, Green, & Duarte, ; Duarte, Schellart, & Rosas, ; Green, Molloy, Davies, & Duarte, ; Mitchell, Kilian, & Evans, ; Pastor‐Galán, Nance, Murphy, & Spencer, ; Witze, ; Yoshida & Santosh, ).…”

“…On the other hand, there are other hypotheses on the formation of the next supercontinent (Davies et al., ; Pastor‐Galán et al., ; Yoshida & Santosh, ). Recently, Duarte et al.…”

Back to the Future II: Tidal evolution of four supercontinent scenarios

“…The continents have coalesced into supercontinents and then dispersed several times in Earth's history in a process known as the supercontinent cycle (Nance et al, 1988). While the cycle has an irregular period (Bradley, 2011), the breakup and reformation typically occurs over 500 -600 Ma (Nance et al, 2013;Davies et al, 2018;Yoshida and Santosh, 2017;2018). Pangea was the latest supercontinent to exist on Earth, forming ~300 Ma ago, and breaking up around 180 Ma ago, thus initiating the current supercontinent cycle (Scotese, 1991;Golonka, 2007).…”