Relative motions of hotspots in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans since late Cretaceous time

Combinations of global plate reconstructions reveal average velocities for the last 50 to 65 million years of 10 to 20 mm yr^(−1) between the Hawaiian hotspot and those beneath Iceland, Tristan da Cunha, Réunion, St. Paul's Island, and Kerguelen. Therefore hotspots do not define a fixed refe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature
Main Authors: Molnar, Peter, Stock, Joann
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Nature Publishing Group 1987
Subjects:
Indian
Kerguelen
Pacific
Tristan
Iceland
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/327587a0
Description
Summary:Combinations of global plate reconstructions reveal average velocities for the last 50 to 65 million years of 10 to 20 mm yr^(−1) between the Hawaiian hotspot and those beneath Iceland, Tristan da Cunha, Réunion, St. Paul's Island, and Kerguelen. Therefore hotspots do not define a fixed reference frame. Uncertainties in these reconstructions are less than the errors incurred by assuming fixed hotspots and less than the differences among various proposed frames of reference of fixed hotspots. © 1987 Nature Publishing Group. Received 16 December 1986; accepted 21 April 1987. W. W. Sager offered helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported primarily by the NSF. J.M.S. also received support from a Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Fellowship.

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