HR: 0800h
AN: V51B-0537    [Abstracts]
TI: Revised Models of Global Plate Motions and Mantle Flow Successfully Predict the Emperor-Hawaii and Other Hotspot-related Seamount Chains
AU: * Sutherland, R
EM: r.sutherland@gns.cri.nz
AF: Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS), PO Box 30-368, Lower Hutt, Wellington New Zealand
AU: Steinberger, B
EM: bernhard.steinberger@ngu.no
AF: Institute for Frontier Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Marine Science & Technology Center (JAMSTEC) 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, 237-0061 Japan
AU: O'Connell, R J
EM: oconnell@geophysics.harvard.edu
AF: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 United States
AB: The bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor chain is a prominent feature usually attributed to a change in Pacific plate motion. However, global plate motion chains fail to predict that bend. We show how the geometry of the Hawaiian-Emperor chain and other hotspot tracks can be explained by a combination of hotspot motion and intraplate deformation. Global mantle flow models predict a southward motion of the Hawaiian hotspot. This, in combination with a plate motion chain connecting Pacific and African plates through Antarctica, predicts the Hawaiian track correctly since the bend, but too far west prior to it. If a chain through Australia - Lord Howe Rise is used instead, the track is predicted correctly back to 65 Ma. The difference between the two predictions indicates the effect of intraplate deformation not yet recognized or else not recorded on the ocean floor. The remaining misfit prior to 65 Ma can be attributed to additional intraplate deformation of similar magnitude.
DE: 8121 Dynamics, convection currents and mantle plumes
DE: 8155 Plate motions--general
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting