The global network of plate boundaries can be divided into two discrete subnetworks containing the spreading and subduction boundaries, respectively. We advocate that this division is a stable pattern that derives from consistency rules in rigid‐plate rotations. Subduction is distributed along a single, long subnetwork, hence organizing the mantle convection as a single, long downwelling wall and two lower mantle upwelling columns, at the Pacific and African sides of the Earth, respectively. The columns should merge upward between Antarctica and Australia to reach the single, long spreading subnetwork. The flow encircles two toric volumes that escape convectional mixing and are the likely sources of the two, Atlantic–Indian and Pacific, hot spot domains.

• Published in: Terra Nova
• Main Author: Ricou, L.‐E.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1998
• Subjects: Pacific; Indian; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-3121.1998.00193.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1046%2Fj.1365-3121.1998.00193.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1046/j.1365-3121.1998.00193.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1046/j.1365-3121.1998.00193.x

The global network of plate boundaries can be divided into two discrete subnetworks containing the spreading and subduction boundaries, respectively. We advocate that this division is a stable pattern that derives from consistency rules in rigid‐plate rotations. Subduction is distributed along a single, long subnetwork, hence organizing the mantle convection as a single, long downwelling wall and two lower mantle upwelling columns, at the Pacific and African sides of the Earth, respectively. The columns should merge upward between Antarctica and Australia to reach the single, long spreading subnetwork. The flow encircles two toric volumes that escape convectional mixing and are the likely sources of the two, Atlantic–Indian and Pacific, hot spot domains.