Crust-mantle coupling during the assembly and amalgamation of Pangea

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The repeated assembly and dispersal of supercontinents have profoundly influenced the Earth’s evolution. Pangea, the latest of these supercontinents, formed about 300 million years ago (300 Ma). There is consensus that “top down” tectonic processes are probably responsible for supercontinent amalgamation. However, if top-down processes are applied to a 500 Ma paleogeography, they fail to yield Pangea in the correct configuration. As a corollary, we have no viable model for the coupling between processes in the Earth’s crust and its mantle, or for understanding long-term global change.