HR: 0800h
AN: V51B-0542    [Abstracts]
TI: Fifty Million Years of Fixed Hotspots: A New Self-Consistent Global Set of Plate Rotations
AU: * Kumar, R R
EM: rkumar@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, 6100 Main St. Earth Science--MS 126, Houston, TX 77005 United States
AU: Andrews, D L
EM: dandrews@jhu.edu
AF: Rice University, 6100 Main St. Earth Science--MS 126, Houston, TX 77005 United States
AU: Gordon, R G
EM: rgg@rice.edu
AF: Rice University, 6100 Main St. Earth Science--MS 126, Houston, TX 77005 United States
AB: We have developed new methods for appropriately estimating the uncertainties in plate rotations relative to hotspots. Using these new methods and the latest available relative plate rotations, and also incorporating uncertainties in relative plate motions, we showed that there is no significant motion between Pacific hotspots and Indo-Atlantic hotspots for the past ca. 50 Myr. Here we take the next step and seek a sequence of rotations based on simultaneous inversion of hotspot track data in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. The resulting set of reconstructions are thus optimal estimates for global plate motion relative to the hotspots for the past 50 Myr. Evidence for significant changes in plate motion, including changes in pole of rotation and in rates of rotation, will be presented. Implications for true polar wander will be discussed.
DE: 8450 Planetary volcanism (5480)
DE: 8121 Dynamics, convection currents and mantle plumes
DE: 3040 Plate tectonics (8150, 8155, 8157, 8158)
DE: 1525 Paleomagnetism applied to tectonics (regional, global)
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting