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Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection

Since around 200 Ma, the most notable event in the process of the breakup of Pangea has been the high speed (up to 20 cm yr(−1)) of the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent. Our numerical simulations of 3-D spherical mantle convection approximately reproduced the process of continental drift f...

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Autores principales: Yoshida, Masaki, Hamano, Yozo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25673102
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08407
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author Yoshida, Masaki
Hamano, Yozo
author_facet Yoshida, Masaki
Hamano, Yozo
author_sort Yoshida, Masaki
collection PubMed
description Since around 200 Ma, the most notable event in the process of the breakup of Pangea has been the high speed (up to 20 cm yr(−1)) of the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent. Our numerical simulations of 3-D spherical mantle convection approximately reproduced the process of continental drift from the breakup of Pangea at 200 Ma to the present-day continental distribution. These simulations revealed that a major factor in the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent was the large-scale cold mantle downwelling that developed spontaneously in the North Tethys Ocean, attributed to the overall shape of Pangea. The strong lateral mantle flow caused by the high-temperature anomaly beneath Pangea, due to the thermal insulation effect, enhanced the acceleration of the Indian subcontinent during the early stage of the Pangea breakup. The large-scale hot upwelling plumes from the lower mantle, initially located under Africa, might have contributed to the formation of the large-scale cold mantle downwelling in the North Tethys Ocean.
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spelling pubmed-43253332015-02-20 Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection Yoshida, Masaki Hamano, Yozo Sci Rep Article Since around 200 Ma, the most notable event in the process of the breakup of Pangea has been the high speed (up to 20 cm yr(−1)) of the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent. Our numerical simulations of 3-D spherical mantle convection approximately reproduced the process of continental drift from the breakup of Pangea at 200 Ma to the present-day continental distribution. These simulations revealed that a major factor in the northward drift of the Indian subcontinent was the large-scale cold mantle downwelling that developed spontaneously in the North Tethys Ocean, attributed to the overall shape of Pangea. The strong lateral mantle flow caused by the high-temperature anomaly beneath Pangea, due to the thermal insulation effect, enhanced the acceleration of the Indian subcontinent during the early stage of the Pangea breakup. The large-scale hot upwelling plumes from the lower mantle, initially located under Africa, might have contributed to the formation of the large-scale cold mantle downwelling in the North Tethys Ocean. Nature Publishing Group 2015-02-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4325333/ /pubmed/25673102 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08407 Text en Copyright © 2015, Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder in order to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Yoshida, Masaki
Hamano, Yozo
Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
title Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
title_full Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
title_fullStr Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
title_full_unstemmed Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
title_short Pangea breakup and northward drift of the Indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
title_sort pangea breakup and northward drift of the indian subcontinent reproduced by a numerical model of mantle convection
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4325333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25673102
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08407
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