Pan African plate tectonics and its repercussions on the crust of northeast Africa

A. Kröner

doi:10.1007/bf01820807

Pan African plate tectonics and its repercussions on the crust of northeast Africa

Geologische Rundschau ◽

10.1007/bf01820807 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 565-583 ◽

Cited By ~ 51

Author(s):

A. Kröner

Keyword(s):

Plate Tectonics ◽

African Plate ◽

Pan African ◽

Northeast Africa

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Chapter 17 The Late Proterozoic Ophiolites of Bou Azzer (Morocco): Evidence for Pan-African Plate Tectonics

Developments in Precambrian Geology ◽

10.1016/s0166-2635(08)70022-7 ◽

1981 ◽

pp. 435-451 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

M. Leblanc

Keyword(s):

Plate Tectonics ◽

African Plate ◽

Late Proterozoic ◽

Pan African

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Plate tectonics and planetary convection

Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences ◽

10.1139/e76-035 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 331-340 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

E. R. Kanasewich

Keyword(s):

Plate Tectonics ◽

Circular Plates ◽

Third Order ◽

African Plate ◽

Map Projections ◽

The North ◽

The Pacific ◽

Convective Pattern ◽

High Degree ◽

Great Circle Path

A series of azimuthal–equidistant map projections, centered on each of the plates of lithosphere, is used to demonstrate the high degree of ordering and symmetry in the major plates. The Pacific and African plates are approximately circular with a radius of 60°. The entire pattern is dominated by these two major plates, exactly antipodal to one another in the form of a dipole. Between the two 'circular' plates is a ring of elliptical plates with irregular boundaries but a organized geometric interrelationship. The average major and minor axes of the 'elliptical' plates, measured at the center of the earth, are 62° ± 6 °and 30° ± 5°, and the major axes are oriented at angles of 56° ± 3 °to lines joining the center of the African plate. The centers of the 'elliptical' plates are arranged within 6° ± 3 °of a great circle path through the North pole. This organized distribution of the major plates is most likely the result of convection currents involving the entire mantle, from the lithosphere to the core. To a first approximation, the convective pattern may be modelled by a superposition of third order spherical harmonics, P03, P13, and P23 in a pattern that regressed from a first spherical harmonic, −P01.

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