The Absolute Motion of the Africa Plate

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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.