Late Mesozoic-Cenozoic Absolute Plate Motions and Their Uncertainties

板块之间的相对运动已经以多种方式被探测和量化，特别是对于新生代和中生代。该项目将扩展这项工作，特别注意在过去的板块位置重建中涉及的累积误差。使用协方差矩阵来描述板块旋转中的误差似乎是有用的，并将应用于所执行的所有重建。板块重建将追溯到中生代，这是重要海底保留下来的最早时间。这一较长时间的板块运动历史及其分析，将为研究这些运动的演化提供更好的机会，并将有助于我们更好地理解哪些特征是板块构造的特征，哪些是单一几何或时间间隔的瞬时和偶然性。

Relative motion between plates has been detected and quantified in a number of ways, particularly for the Cenozoic and Mesozoic. This project will extend this work with special attention to the accumulated errors involved in past plate position reconstructions. The use of covariance matrices to describe the errors in plate rotations appears useful and will be applied to all reconstructions performed. Plate reconstructions will be extended back to the Mesozoic Era, the earliest time for which significant seafloor remains. This longer time history of plate motions, and analysis of these, will provide a better opportunity to study the evolution of these motions and will improve our understanding of which features are characteristic of plate tectonics and which are transitory and accidents of a single geometry or time interval.