Major Australian-Antarctic Plate Reorganization at Hawaiian-Emperor Bend Time

A marked bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain supposedly resulted from a recent majorreorganization of the plate-mantle system there 50 million years ago. Although alternative mantledrivenand plate-shifting hypotheses have been proposed, no contemporaneous circum-Pacific plateevents have been...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Whittaker, J, Muller, RD, Leitchenkov, G, Stagg, H, Sdrolias, M, Gaina, C, Goncharov, A
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Amer Assoc Advancement Science 2007
Subjects:
Earth Sciences
Geology
Marine Geoscience
Antarctic
Emperor Seamount Chain
Pacific
Tonga
West Antarctica
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1143769
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/84443
Description
Summary:A marked bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain supposedly resulted from a recent majorreorganization of the plate-mantle system there 50 million years ago. Although alternative mantledrivenand plate-shifting hypotheses have been proposed, no contemporaneous circum-Pacific plateevents have been identified. We report reconstructions for Australia and Antarctica that reveal a majorplate reorganization between 50 and 53 million years ago. Revised Pacific Ocean sea-floorreconstructions suggest that subduction of the Pacific-Izanagi spreading ridge and subsequentMarianas/Tonga-Kermadec subduction initiation may have been the ultimate causes of these events.Thus, these plate reconstructions solve long-standing continental fit problems and improve constraintson the motion between East and West Antarctica and global plate circuit closure.

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