Driving mechanism and 3-D circulation of plate tectonics

2007 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren B. Hamilton
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Driving Mechanism

On the driving mechanism of plate tectonics

1977 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 61-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank M. Richter
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Driving Mechanism

The driving mechanism of plate tectonics

1975 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald L. Turcotte
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Driving Mechanism

The driving mechanism of plate tectonics

1991 ◽  
Vol 187 (4) ◽  
pp. 345-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Vigny ◽  
Y. Ricard ◽  
C. Froidevaux
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Driving Mechanism

Ridge subduction: kinematics and implications for the nature of mantle upwelling

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 893-907 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Farrar ◽  
John M. Dixon
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Continental Margin ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Thermal Anomaly ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Mantle Upwelling ◽  
Basin And Range Province ◽  
Sea Floor ◽  
Ridge Subduction ◽  
Sea Floor Spreading

Ridge subduction follows the approach of an oceanic spreading centre towards a trench and subduction of the leading oceanic plate beneath the overriding plate. There are four possible kinematic scenarios: (1) welding of the trailing and overriding plates (e.g., Aluk–Antarctic Ridge beneath Antarctica); (2) slower subduction of the trailing plate (e.g., Nazca–Antarctic Ridge beneath Chile and Pacific–Izanagi Ridge beneath Japan); (3) transform motion between the trailing and overriding plates (e.g., San Andreas Transform); or (4) divergence between the overriding and trailing plates (e.g., Pacific – North America). In case 4, the divergence may be accommodated in two ways: the overriding plate may be stretched (e.g., Basin and Range Province extension, which has brought the continental margin into collinearity (and, therefore, transform motion) with the Pacific – North America relative motion); or divergence may occur at the continental margin and be manifest as a change in rate and direction of sea-floor spreading because the pair of spreading plates changes (e.g., from Pacific–Farallon to Pacific – North America), spawning a secondary spreading centre (i.e., Gorda – Juan de Fuca – Explorer ridge system) that migrates away from the overriding plate.Mantle upwelling associated with sea-floor spreading ridges is widely regarded as a passive consequence, rather than an active cause, of plate divergence. Geological and geophysical phenomena attendant to ridge–trench interaction suggest that regardless of the kinematic relations among the three plates, a thermal anomaly formerly associated with the ridge migrates beneath the overriding plate. The persistence of this thermal anomaly demonstrates that active mantle upwelling may continue for tens of millions of years after ridge subduction. Thus, regardless of whether the mantle upwelling was active or passive at its origin, it becomes active if the spreading continues for sufficient time and, thus, must contribute to the driving mechanism of plate tectonics.

Global Adjoint Reconstructions of Earth’s Mantle

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sia Ghelichkhan ◽  
Jens Oeser
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Solid Earth ◽  
Mantle Convection ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Earth Observations ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
High Resolution Images

<p><span>Mantle convection is the driving mechanism for plate tectonics and associated geological activities, including earthquakes, surface dynamic uplift and subsidence, and volcanoes. Mantle convection can be regarded as the central framework for linking the sub-disciplines of solid Earth science, e.g., geochemistry, seismology, mineral physics, geodesy and geology. </span></p><p><span>In theory, it is possible to model mantle convection by integrating the principial conservation equations in time, given a past mantle-state as the starting point. Nonetheless, there remains a fundamental lack of knowledge on any past mantle-states. Without such knowledge any direct comparison of convection models and solid Earth observations is challenging and often impractical. One can, however, pose the problem differently, and obtain a past flow history by minimising ‘a misfit’ functional between observations and models of Earth’s mantle. The recent applications of adjoint method in geodynamics, together with the ever-increasing computational power, has facilitated solutions to such minimisation problems, where a unique flow history in Earth’s mantle can be generated, subject to assumed geodynamic modelling parameters.</span></p><p><span>Here, we build on previously published adjoint models and present a suite of eight high resolution (11 kms) reconstruction models going back to 50 Ma ago. These models incorporate many improvements. First, we take advantage of the recent advances in surface and body waveform tomography to obtain high resolution images of present-day structures in Earth’s mantle. Our thermodynamic modelling of mantle structures rely on the most recent datasets of mantle mineralogy and account for effects of anelasticity. Furthermore, we assume a wide range of viscosity profiles, including published models consistent with observations of geoid, mantle mineralogy, and post-glacial rebound studies. Finally, we verify these models by comparisons against a range of different geologic observations.</span></p>

Intraplate Earthquakes, Lithospheric Stresses and the Driving Mechanism of Plate Tectonics

Nature ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 245 (5424) ◽  
pp. 298-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
LYNN R. SYKES ◽  
MARC L. SBAR
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Intraplate Earthquakes

scholarly journals Frontiers in earth sciences: new ideas and interpretation

2006 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Scalera ◽  
G. Lavecchia
Keyword(s):  
Mediterranean Region ◽  
Subduction Zones ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Mantle Boundary ◽  
Core Mantle Boundary ◽  
The Core ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Natural Laboratory

A one-day symposium on new and conventional ideas in plate tectonics and Mediterranean geodynamics was held in Rome on February 19, 2003 at the headquarters of INGV. There were two main reasons for such an initiative. The first was an invitation to Giancarlo Scalera from the «Gabriele D’Annunzio» University of Chieti to present his alternative ideas on global tectonics to final year students of the Regional Geology course. The second was a reciprocal invitation to Giusy Lavecchia and Francesco Stoppa to explain their criticisms of the application of subduction-related models to Italian geology and to present their data on the recently discovered intra-Apennines carbonatite occurrences. It was decided to dedicate an entire day to seminars, involving people with a more conventional approach to geodynamics, especially those involved with seismic tomography. In the last few years, high-resolution mantle tomographic models have been widely used to unravel the geometry of subduction zones. A turning point in the field, however, was a review paper written by Fukao et al. (Rev. Geophysics, 39, 291-323, 2001) showing that there was no clear evidence for slab subduction down to the core-mantle boundary, thus posing a major problem on the balance between the lithosphere subducted at consuming plate margins and the large amount of oceanic lithosphere accreted at diverging plate margins. This prompted the need to re-evaluate the nature of subduction and plate margin evolution. Accepting the theory of plate tectonics, many problems remain open, especially those regarding plate driving mechanisms and their possible link with the forces developed at the core-mantle boundary. Might these forces trigger pulsating tectonic and magmatic activity, with mantle upwellings and large-scale emission of CO2, capable of causing dramatic changes in the composition of the atmosphere and changes at the Earth’s surface? Could these lead to major catastrophic changes in Earth history? During the one-day symposium, a stimulating discussion took place involving different interpretations of observations, especially those relating to the geodynamics of the Mediterranean region. Although the papers in this collection do not provide unique solutions, they do, however, provide new insights into some problems and in some cases suggest new interpretations. Many questions also arise about the relationships between the tectonics of the lithosphere and the deep mantle processes. May the denser portions of the inner parts of the Earth transform into shallower, lighter chemical phases, with a possible increase in the Earth’s volume? May the asthenosphere above growing plume heads be capable of dragging the overlying lithosphere? May mantle plumes be wet rather than hot? Some papers consider gravitation to be a driving mechanism for the nucleation of contractional belts and others even doubt the compressional origin of orogens. Finally – as a link to fundamental physics – an original mechanism of energy conversion from gravitons to photons is proposed as a supply of energy for global tectonic processes. Obviously, because of an often diverse philosophical and scientific background, it is difficult for the ideas presented in this supplement to be shared by all readers and contributors. But we hope that these ideas will help to encourage critical evaluations of some commonly accepted concepts in modern plate tectonic theory. European geoscientists have available to them an exceptional natural laboratory – the Mediterranean and surrounding orogens – complete with all of its paradoxes and contradictions. In this natural laboratory, we hope that new evidence and new solutions to a variety of problems outside of the Mediterranean region will be found!

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