Seismic image of the subducted trailing fragments of the Farallon plate
Article Abstract:
The Farallon plate, a huge oceanic plate that was west of the Americas in the Cenozoic and Mesozoic eras, has now been nearly totally subducted under the American plates. The plate broke up in the Northern Hemisphere to form a few independent smaller plates after its western edge neared the North American plate. A tomographic image of the plate's subducted trailing fragments make them appear as an intricate region of high seismic S-wave velocity. Using tectonic plate reconstructions and volcanic records, the kinematic evolution of the Farallon slab in the upper mantle under North America was reconstructed.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1997
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Seismic evidence for convection-driven motion of the North American plate
Article Abstract:
The plate-reconstruction models and seismic tomographic studies show that the 115-140-Myr surface expression of the Great Meteor hotspot track in eastern North America is misaligned with respect to its location at 200 km depth. The relative displacement of the base which is approximately parallel to seismic fast axes and calculated mantle flow suggests that asthenospheric flow might be deforming the lithospheric keel and exerting a driving force on this part of North American plate.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 2007
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Oldest terrestrial landscape
Article Abstract:
Earth is the only planet where the relationship between surface elevation and area is bimodal and it occurs due to the presence of plate and ocean tectonics. A study suggests that a palaeosol lies beneath the 3500 million year unconformity having a composition of oldest known microfossils and can be used to understand the atmospheric composition at that time. Interactions between the atmosphere and rocks emerging from the oceans form soil.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1995
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