Computer animation of Phanerozoic plate motions
- Univ. of Texas, Arlington, TX (United States). Dept. of Geology
Since 1985, the PALEOMAP Project, in collaboration with research groups both in the US and abroad, has assembled a digital model that describes global plate motions during the last 600 million years. In this paper the authors present a series of computer animations that dynamically illustrates the movement of continents and terranes, and the evolution of the ocean basins since the breakup of the late Precambrian supercontinent. These animations depict the motion of the plates from both equatorial and polar perspectives. Mesozoic and Cenozoic plate tectonic reconstructions are based on a synthesis of linear magnetic anomalies, fracture zone locations, intracontinental rifts, collision and thrust belts, and zones of strike-slip. Paleozoic plate reconstructions, though more speculative, are based on evidence of past subduction, continental collision, and inferred sea floor spreading. The relative longitudinal positions of the continents during the Paleozoic and the width of intervening oceans have been adjusted to best explain changing biogeographic and paleoclimatic patterns. A new paleomagnetic/hot spot reference frame has been constructed that combines paleomagnetic data compiled by Rob Van der Voo (1992) with inferred motion relative to a fixed frame of hot spots. Using probable Early Mesozoic and Paleozoic hot spot tracks on the major continents, the authors have extended plate motions relative to the hot spot reference frame back to 400 million years.
- OSTI ID:
- 5879991
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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