Summary: Eastbound sublithosphere mantle ¯ow through the
Caribbean gap and its relevance to the continental
undertow hypothesis
Walter Alvarez*
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-4767, USA, and Osservatorio Geologico di
Coldigioco, 62020 Frontale di Apiro (MC), Italy
Introduction
Despite advances in understanding the
dynamics and depth range of mantle
¯ow and its relation to plate tectonic
motions (Richards et al., 2000), the
geographical pattern of this ¯ow is not
yet well known. Almost two decades
ago, I presented a technique for map-
ping the geography of mantle ¯ow if
two conditions hold true (Alvarez,
1982). The ®rst condition is that ¯ow
patterns in the shallow mantle be
decoupled from those deeper in the
mantle. The second condition is that

Source: Alvarez, Walter - Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California at Berkeley

Collections: Geosciences