The Absolute Motion of the Africa Plate

地球？S地表是由岩石(岩石圈)板块组成的马赛克。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，解开板块运动的地质史对于理解地球的地质史是非常重要的。几十年来，一些人一直认为，在热点地区形成的海山踪迹？例如夏威夷记录了板块的运动，而板块运动的重大变化由诸如夏威夷-帝王海山链中5000万年前的大弯曲等特征来指示。然而，其他人争辩说，海山链没有记录？绝对？板块运动(APM)是因为热点的来源以及板块的移动。这场争论中的一个重要问题是，不同板块上的热点轨迹是否可以与共同绝对运动模型中已知的板块之间的相对运动相一致。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板块的绝对运动，以限制板块运动和年代学。更广泛的影响包括这项研究对理解地球最基本的运行方式具有很高的相关性，通过包括播客、动画等在内的网站公开传播结果，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.