Central North Atlantic Plate Motions over the Last 40 Million Years

The relative motion vector for the North American and African plates has been determined from detailed charting of the trend of the Atlantis fracture zone for over 1000 kilometers in the central North Atlantic near 30°N and from identification of marine magnetic anomalies and deep-sea drilling resul...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Phillips, J. D., Luyendyk, Bruce P.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 1970
Subjects:
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.170.3959.727
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.170.3959.727
Description
Summary:The relative motion vector for the North American and African plates has been determined from detailed charting of the trend of the Atlantis fracture zone for over 1000 kilometers in the central North Atlantic near 30°N and from identification of marine magnetic anomalies and deep-sea drilling results. The vector (pole) is located at 52.5°N, 34°W and has a magnitude (opening rate) of 5.7 × 10 -7 degree per year. Major changes in either the pole location or the opening rate are not evident for the last 40 million years.

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