Evidence for active upper mantle flow in the Atlantic and Indo-Australian realms since the Upper Jurassic from hiatus maps and spreading rate changes

Vilacis, Berta ; Hayek, Jorge N.; Stotz, Ingo L. ; Bunge, Hans-Peter; Friedrich, Anke M. ; Carena, Sara und Clark, Stuart (2022): Evidence for active upper mantle flow in the Atlantic and Indo-Australian realms since the Upper Jurassic from hiatus maps and spreading rate changes. In: Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A : Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Bd. 478, Nr. 2262, 20210764

Abstract

Histories of large-scale horizontal and vertical lithosphere motion hold important information on mantle convection. Here, we compare continent-scale hiatus maps as a proxy for mantle flow induced dynamic topography and plate motion variations in the Atlantic and Indo-Australian realms since the Upper Jurassic, finding they frequently correlate, except when plate boundary forces may play a significant role. This correlation agrees with descriptions of asthenosphere flow beneath tectonic plates in terms of Poiseuille/Couette flow, as it explicitly relates plate motion changes, induced by evolving basal shear forces, to non-isostatic vertical motion of the lithosphere. Our analysis reveals a timescale, on the order of a geological series, between the occurrence of continent-scale hiatus and plate motion changes. This is consistent with the presence of a weak upper mantle. It also shows a spatial scale for interregional hiatus, on the order of 2000-3000 km in diameter, which can be linked by fluid dynamic analysis to active upper mantle flow regions. Our results suggest future studies should pursue large-scale horizontal and vertical lithosphere motion in combination, to track the expressions of past mantle flow. Such studies would provide powerful constraints for adjoint-based geodynamic inverse models of past mantle convection.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Geowissenschaften > Department für Geo- und Umweltwissenschaften
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 550 Geowissenschaften, Geologie
• ISSN: 1364-5021
• Sprache: Englisch