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On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean

The oceanic Pacific Plate started forming in Early Jurassic time within the vast Panthalassa Ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangea, and contains the oldest lithosphere that can directly constrain the geodynamic history of the circum-Pangean Earth. We show that the geometry of the oldest ma...

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Autores principales: Boschman, Lydian M., van Hinsbergen, Douwe J. J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5919776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29713683
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600022
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author Boschman, Lydian M.
van Hinsbergen, Douwe J. J.
author_facet Boschman, Lydian M.
van Hinsbergen, Douwe J. J.
author_sort Boschman, Lydian M.
collection PubMed
description The oceanic Pacific Plate started forming in Early Jurassic time within the vast Panthalassa Ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangea, and contains the oldest lithosphere that can directly constrain the geodynamic history of the circum-Pangean Earth. We show that the geometry of the oldest marine magnetic anomalies of the Pacific Plate attests to a unique plate kinematic event that sparked the plate’s birth at virtually a point location, surrounded by the Izanagi, Farallon, and Phoenix Plates. We reconstruct the unstable triple junction that caused the plate reorganization, which led to the birth of the Pacific Plate, and present a model of the plate tectonic configuration that preconditioned this event. We show that a stable but migrating triple junction involving the gradual cessation of intraoceanic Panthalassa subduction culminated in the formation of an unstable transform-transform-transform triple junction. The consequent plate boundary reorganization resulted in the formation of a stable triangular three-ridge system from which the nascent Pacific Plate expanded. We link the birth of the Pacific Plate to the regional termination of intra-Panthalassa subduction. Remnants thereof have been identified in the deep lower mantle of which the locations may provide paleolongitudinal control on the absolute location of the early Pacific Plate. Our results constitute an essential step in unraveling the plate tectonic evolution of “Thalassa Incognita” that comprises the comprehensive Panthalassa Ocean surrounding Pangea.
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spelling pubmed-59197762018-04-30 On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean Boschman, Lydian M. van Hinsbergen, Douwe J. J. Sci Adv Research Articles The oceanic Pacific Plate started forming in Early Jurassic time within the vast Panthalassa Ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangea, and contains the oldest lithosphere that can directly constrain the geodynamic history of the circum-Pangean Earth. We show that the geometry of the oldest marine magnetic anomalies of the Pacific Plate attests to a unique plate kinematic event that sparked the plate’s birth at virtually a point location, surrounded by the Izanagi, Farallon, and Phoenix Plates. We reconstruct the unstable triple junction that caused the plate reorganization, which led to the birth of the Pacific Plate, and present a model of the plate tectonic configuration that preconditioned this event. We show that a stable but migrating triple junction involving the gradual cessation of intraoceanic Panthalassa subduction culminated in the formation of an unstable transform-transform-transform triple junction. The consequent plate boundary reorganization resulted in the formation of a stable triangular three-ridge system from which the nascent Pacific Plate expanded. We link the birth of the Pacific Plate to the regional termination of intra-Panthalassa subduction. Remnants thereof have been identified in the deep lower mantle of which the locations may provide paleolongitudinal control on the absolute location of the early Pacific Plate. Our results constitute an essential step in unraveling the plate tectonic evolution of “Thalassa Incognita” that comprises the comprehensive Panthalassa Ocean surrounding Pangea. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2016-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5919776/ /pubmed/29713683 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600022 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Boschman, Lydian M.
van Hinsbergen, Douwe J. J.
On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean
title On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean
title_full On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean
title_fullStr On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean
title_full_unstemmed On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean
title_short On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean
title_sort on the enigmatic birth of the pacific plate within the panthalassa ocean
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5919776/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29713683
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1600022
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