Crust-mantle coupling during the assembly and amalgamation of Pangea

超级大陆的反复组合和分散深刻地影响了地球的演化。盘古大陆是这些超级大陆中最新的一个，大约形成于3亿年前（300年前）。人们一致认为，“自上而下”的构造作用可能是超大陆合并的原因。然而，如果将自顶向下的过程应用于500 Ma的古地理，它们就不能得到正确配置的泛大陆。作为推论，我们没有可行的模型来解释地壳和地幔过程之间的耦合，也没有可行的模型来理解长期的全球变化。

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.