The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate
The breakup of the supercontinent Gondwanaland into Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India about 140 million years ago, and consequently the opening of the Indian Ocean, is thought to have been caused by heating of the lithosphere from below by a large plume whose relicts are now the Marion, Kergue...
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ftgfzpotsdam:oai:gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de:item_236014 2023-05-15T13:35:25+02:00 The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate Kumar, P. Yuan, X. Kumar, M. Kind, R. Li, X. Chadha, R. 2007 application/pdf https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014_1/component/file_236013/10437.pdf unknown info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nature06214 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014_1/component/file_236013/10437.pdf info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Nature 550 - Earth sciences info:eu-repo/semantics/article 2007 ftgfzpotsdam https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06214 2022-09-14T05:56:32Z The breakup of the supercontinent Gondwanaland into Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India about 140 million years ago, and consequently the opening of the Indian Ocean, is thought to have been caused by heating of the lithosphere from below by a large plume whose relicts are now the Marion, Kerguelen and Réunion plumes. Plate reconstructions based on palaeomagnetic data suggest that the Indian plate attained a very high speed (18–20 cm yr-1 during the late Cretaceous period) subsequent to its breakup from Gondwanaland, and then slowed to approx5 cm yr-1 after the continental collision with Asia approx50 Myr ago1, 2. The Australian and African plates moved comparatively less distance and at much lower speeds of 2–4 cm yr-1 (refs 3–5). Antarctica remained almost stationary. This mobility makes India unique among the fragments of Gondwanaland. Here we propose that when the fragments of Gondwanaland were separated by the plume, the penetration of their lithospheric roots into the asthenosphere were important in determining their speed. We estimated the thickness of the lithospheric plates of the different fragments of Gondwanaland around the Indian Ocean by using the shear-wave receiver function technique. We found that the fragment of Gondwanaland with clearly the thinnest lithosphere is India. The lithospheric roots in South Africa, Australia and Antarctica are between 180 and 300 km deep, whereas the Indian lithosphere extends only about 100 km deep. We infer that the plume that partitioned Gondwanaland may have also melted the lower half of the Indian lithosphere, thus permitting faster motion due to ridge push or slab pull. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica GFZpublic (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam) Indian Kerguelen Nature 449 7164 894 897 |
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Open Polar |
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GFZpublic (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam) |
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ftgfzpotsdam |
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unknown |
topic |
550 - Earth sciences |
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550 - Earth sciences Kumar, P. Yuan, X. Kumar, M. Kind, R. Li, X. Chadha, R. The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate |
topic_facet |
550 - Earth sciences |
description |
The breakup of the supercontinent Gondwanaland into Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India about 140 million years ago, and consequently the opening of the Indian Ocean, is thought to have been caused by heating of the lithosphere from below by a large plume whose relicts are now the Marion, Kerguelen and Réunion plumes. Plate reconstructions based on palaeomagnetic data suggest that the Indian plate attained a very high speed (18–20 cm yr-1 during the late Cretaceous period) subsequent to its breakup from Gondwanaland, and then slowed to approx5 cm yr-1 after the continental collision with Asia approx50 Myr ago1, 2. The Australian and African plates moved comparatively less distance and at much lower speeds of 2–4 cm yr-1 (refs 3–5). Antarctica remained almost stationary. This mobility makes India unique among the fragments of Gondwanaland. Here we propose that when the fragments of Gondwanaland were separated by the plume, the penetration of their lithospheric roots into the asthenosphere were important in determining their speed. We estimated the thickness of the lithospheric plates of the different fragments of Gondwanaland around the Indian Ocean by using the shear-wave receiver function technique. We found that the fragment of Gondwanaland with clearly the thinnest lithosphere is India. The lithospheric roots in South Africa, Australia and Antarctica are between 180 and 300 km deep, whereas the Indian lithosphere extends only about 100 km deep. We infer that the plume that partitioned Gondwanaland may have also melted the lower half of the Indian lithosphere, thus permitting faster motion due to ridge push or slab pull. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kumar, P. Yuan, X. Kumar, M. Kind, R. Li, X. Chadha, R. |
author_facet |
Kumar, P. Yuan, X. Kumar, M. Kind, R. Li, X. Chadha, R. |
author_sort |
Kumar, P. |
title |
The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate |
title_short |
The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate |
title_full |
The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate |
title_fullStr |
The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate |
title_full_unstemmed |
The rapid drift of the Indian tectonic plate |
title_sort |
rapid drift of the indian tectonic plate |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014_1/component/file_236013/10437.pdf |
geographic |
Indian Kerguelen |
geographic_facet |
Indian Kerguelen |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica |
op_source |
Nature |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nature06214 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014 https://gfzpublic.gfz-potsdam.de/pubman/item/item_236014_1/component/file_236013/10437.pdf |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06214 |
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Nature |
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449 |
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7164 |
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894 |
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897 |
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1766065309978984448 |