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Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics

Nature volume 498, pages 479–482 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Viscous convection within the mantle is linked to tectonic plate motions1,2,3 and deforms Earth’s surface across wide areas4,5,6. Such close links between surface geology and deep mantle dynamics presumably operated throughout Earth’s history, but are difficult to investigate for past times because the history of mantle flow is poorly known7. Here we show that the time dependence of global-scale mantle flow can be deduced from the net behaviour of surface plate motions. In particular, we tracked the geographic locations of net convergence and divergence for harmonic degrees 1 and 2 by computing the dipole and quadrupole moments of plate motions from tectonic reconstructions8,9 extended back to the early Mesozoic era. For present-day plate motions, we find dipole convergence in eastern Asia and quadrupole divergence in both central Africa and the central Pacific. These orientations are nearly identical to the dipole and quadrupole orientations of underlying mantle flow, which indicates that these ‘net characteristics’ of plate motions reveal deeper flow patterns. The positions of quadrupole divergence have not moved significantly during the past 250 million years, which suggests long-term stability of mantle upwelling beneath Africa and the Pacific Ocean. These upwelling locations are positioned above two compositionally and seismologically distinct10 regions of the lowermost mantle, which may organize global mantle flow11 as they remain stationary over geologic time12.

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Figure 1: Definitions of net characteristics.
Figure 2: Association of plate tectonic net characteristics with those of underlying mantle flow.
Figure 3: Temporal evolution of plate tectonic net characteristics.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for NSF CAREER grant EAR-1151241 (to C.P.C.) and ERC grant 267631 (to T.H.T.), and to the Norwegian Centre for Advanced Study in Oslo for making this collaboration possible.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, SOEST, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    Clinton P. Conrad

  2. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, 14473 Potsdam, Germany,

    Bernhard Steinberger

  3. Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo, Norway,

    Bernhard Steinberger & Trond H. Torsvik

  4. Geodynamics, Geological Survey of Norway, NO-7491, Trondheim, Norway,

    Trond H. Torsvik

  5. School of Geosciences, University of Witwatersrand, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa,

    Trond H. Torsvik

Authors
  1. Clinton P. Conrad
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  3. Trond H. Torsvik
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Contributions

C.P.C. defined the method to compute net characteristics, B.S. and T.H.T. extended the plate reconstruction through the Mesozoic, all authors developed the geologic application and interpretation and C.P.C. prepared the manuscript with input, comments and review from all authors.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Clinton P. Conrad.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Text and Data sections 1-5 and Supplementary Figures 1-6. (PDF 5397 kb)

Supplementary Data

This file contains digitized plate boundaries (latitude, longitude in degrees) for the 150-250 Ma extension of the Torsvik et al. [2010] plate tectonic model, with headers denoting the name, plate number, and number of points that describe each plate. (TXT 231 kb)

Supplementary Data

This file contains digitized stage pole (stage start (Ma), stage end (Ma), latitude (deg), longitude (deg), rotation rate (deg/Myr), plate number, plate name) for the 150-250 Ma extension of the Torsvik et al. [2010] plate tectonic model. (TXT 5 kb)

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Conrad, C., Steinberger, B. & Torsvik, T. Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics. Nature 498, 479–482 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature12203

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