The Absolute Motion of the Africa Plate

非洲板块的绝对运动

• 批准号: 1060541
• 负责人: Paul Wessel
• 金额: $ 15.36万
• 依托单位: University of Hawaii
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-03-01 至 2014-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1060541&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Absolute; Motion; Africa; Plate

Earth?s surface is comprised of a mosaic of rocky (lithospheric) plates. Motions of these plates give rise to major geologic features such as the Himalayas, the Alps, and the Atlantic Ocean. Unraveling the geologic history of plate motions is thus a matter of great importance to understanding the geologic history of our planet. For several decades, some have argued that trails of seamounts created at ?hot spots? such as Hawaii record the motions plates, and major changes of plate motion are indicated by features such as the great 50 million year old bend in the Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain. Others, however, have argued that seamount chains do not record ?absolute? plate motions (APM) because the hot spot sources as well as the plated move. An important question in this debate is whether hot spot trails on different plates can be reconciled with the known relative motions between plates in a common absolute motion model. A key problem is the motion of the Africa Plate. This project will reanalyze the absolute plate motion of Africa recorded using hot spot tracks to constrain plate motion and chronology. Broader impacts include the very high relevance of this study for understanding the most fundamental working of the planet, public dissemination of the results through a web site that includes podcasts, animations, etc, and training a graduate student.

地球？地球的表面是由岩石（岩石圈）板块镶嵌而成。这些板块的运动产生了主要的地质特征，如喜马拉雅山、阿尔卑斯山和大西洋。因此，揭开板块运动的地质历史对于理解我们星球的地质历史非常重要。几十年来，一些人一直认为，在？热点？例如夏威夷记录了板块的运动，而板块运动的主要变化则由夏威夷-帝王海山链中长达5000万年的巨大弯曲等特征所指示。然而，其他人则认为海山链不记录？绝对？板块运动（APM），因为热点源以及电镀移动。在这场争论中的一个重要问题是，在一个共同的绝对运动模型中，不同板块上的热点轨迹是否可以与已知的板块之间的相对运动相协调。一个关键问题是非洲板块的运动。该项目将重新分析非洲的绝对板块运动，使用热点轨迹来限制板块运动和年代学。更广泛的影响包括这项研究的非常高的相关性，了解地球上最基本的工作，通过一个网站，包括播客，动画等，并培训研究生的结果的公共传播。