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A record of plume-induced plate rotation triggering subduction initiation

Nature Geoscience volume 14, pages 626–630 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

The formation of a global network of plate boundaries surrounding a mosaic of lithospheric fragments was a key step in the emergence of Earth’s plate tectonics. So far, propositions for plate boundary formation are regional in nature; how plate boundaries are created over thousands of kilometres in geologically short periods remains elusive. Here we show from geological observations that a >12,000-km-long plate boundary formed between the Indian and African plates around 105 Myr ago. This boundary comprised subduction segments from the eastern Mediterranean region to a newly established India–Africa rotation pole in the west Indian Ocean, where it transitioned into a ridge between India and Madagascar. We identify coeval mantle plume rise below Madagascar–India as the only viable trigger of this plate rotation. For this, we provide a proof of concept by torque balance modelling, which reveals that the Indian and African cratonic keels were important in determining plate rotation and subduction initiation in response to the spreading plume head. Our results show that plumes may provide a non-plate-tectonic mechanism for large-plate rotation, initiating divergent and convergent plate boundaries far away from the plume head. We suggest that this mechanism may be an underlying cause of the emergence of modern plate tectonics.

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Fig. 1: Plate kinematic reconstructions of the Neotethys Ocean and surrounding continents.
Fig. 2: Torque balance modelling results of plumes affecting plates similar to India and Africa with and without cratonic keels.

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Data availability

GPlates files with reconstructions used to draft Fig. 1 are provided at https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/van_Hinsbergen_NatureGeo_2021_GPlates_zip/13516727.

Code availability

All codes used in the geodynamic modelling in this study are available at https://figshare.com/articles/software/van_Hinsbergen_etal_NatureGeo_2021_geodynamics_package/13635089.

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Acknowledgements

D.J.J.v.H. acknowledges funding through European Research Council Starting Grant 306810 (SINK) (also funding M.M., D.G., A.P. and E.L.A.), Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Vidi grant 864.11.004 (also funding K.P. and P.J.M.) and Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) Vici grant 865.17.001. B.S. and C. Gaina received funding from the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project no. 223272. B.S. acknowledges the innovation pool of the Helmholtz Association through the Advanced Earth System Modelling Capacity (ESM) activity. C. Guilmette was funded through Discovery Grant (RGPIN-2014-05681) from the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. We thank I. L. ten Kate and D. Bandyopadhyay for discussion and F. Capitanio and D. Müller for their comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen, Marco Maffione, Derya Gürer, Kalijn Peters, Alexis Plunder, Peter J. McPhee, Eldert L. Advokaat, Reinoud L. M. Vissers & Wim Spakman

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

    Bernhard Steinberger

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

    Bernhard Steinberger & Carmen Gaina

  4. Département de Géologie et de Génie Géologique, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec, Canada

    Carl Guilmette

  5. School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Marco Maffione & Eldert L. Advokaat

  6. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia

    Derya Gürer

  7. BRGM, Orléans, France

    Alexis Plunder

  8. School for Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

    Carmen Gaina

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Contributions

D.J.J.v.H., B.S. and W.S. designed the research. D.J.J.v.H., C. Guilmette, M.M., D.G., K.P., A.P., P.J.M., C. Gaina, E.L.A. and R.L.M.V. developed the kinematic reconstruction; B.S. performed modelling; D.J.J.v.H., B.S., C. Guilmette and W.S. wrote the paper and all authors made corrections and edits.

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Correspondence to Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen.

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Peer review information Nature Geoscience thanks R. Dietmar Muller, Fabio Capitanio and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Stefan Lachowycz.

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van Hinsbergen, D.J.J., Steinberger, B., Guilmette, C. et al. A record of plume-induced plate rotation triggering subduction initiation. Nat. Geosci. 14, 626–630 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-021-00780-7

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