The Absolute Motion of the Africa Plate

地球?地球表面由岩石（岩石圈）板块组成。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，揭示板块运动的地质历史对于理解地球的地质历史是非常重要的。几十年来，一些人一直认为，海底山的痕迹是在？热点?夏威夷等地记录了板块的运动，而板块运动的主要变化可以通过夏威夷-皇帝海山链5000万年前的大弯曲等特征来表明。然而，另一些人则认为，海山链并没有记录绝对的温度变化。板块运动（APM）是因为热点源以及被镀层的移动。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。该项目将重新分析使用热点轨迹记录的非洲绝对板块运动，以约束板块运动和年表。更广泛的影响包括，这项研究对了解地球最基本的工作具有非常高的相关性，通过一个包括播客、动画等的网站向公众传播结果，以及培训研究生。

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.