Abstract
Plate tectonic theory is used to predict the motion of small plates which remain coupled within discrete regions to adjacent large plates. Taking the Western Cordillera of North America as an example, it is shown that the three oroclines situated between Vancouver and Northern California are very largely removed when that portion of the orogenic belt south of the Klamath mountains is rotated back in time with the Pacific plate while retaining the northern Cordillera as a rigid portion of the American plate. The rotation at the Pacific–America pole is found to be 14.4° which suggests that the deformation began during the Oligocene.
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Heptonstall, W. Plate linkage mechanism to account for oroclinal deformation in the Western Cordillera of North America. Nature 268, 27–32 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/268027a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/268027a0
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