Geoid, Pangea and convection

Details Geoid, Pangea and convection Geoid, Pangea and convection

Jan 1984

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1984e%26psl..67..123l&link_type=abstract

Earth and Planetary Science Letters (ISSN 0012-821X), vol. 67, no. 1, Jan. 1984, p. 123-135. Research supported by the Centre Na

Physics

Geophysics

39

Continents, Convective Flow, Geoids, Geophysics, Axes Of Rotation, Continental Drift, Earth Mantle, Northern Hemisphere, Southern Hemisphere

Scientific paper

It is shown that the present geoid has a simple, low-order configuration with an axis of symmetry in the equatorial plane. It is shown further that it is a 'tennis-ball' pattern, with an equatorial high belt and a polar low one, which is clearly controlled by the rotation of the earth. Finally, it is shown that the outline of Pangea between at least 200 Ma and 125 Ma ago lay along a great circle passing through the paleopoles of rotation. Thus, it also had an axis of symmetry in the equatorial plane. This hemispheric supercontinent configuration ended in Middle Cretaceous time during a major geologic catastrophe which was accompanied by high rates of spreading, hotspot outbreaks and high sea-level stands. This evidence is interpreted in terms of separate steady state lower mantle convection, responsible for the present geoid, weakly coupled to the upper mantle one. This weak coupling leads to the hemispheric continent configuration which ends when excessive heating of the upper mantle due to the insulating continental cap leads to continent dispersal. The complete cycle, from one supercontinent to the next, might be of the order of 400 Ma.

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