Michael Chin Butterworth, N. P., Müller, R. D., Quevedo, L., O’Connor, J. M., Hoernle, K., & Morra, G. (2014). Pacific Plate slab pull and intraplate deformation in the early Cenozoic. Solid Earth, 5(2). doi: 10.5194/sed-6-1-2014. Pacific Plate slab pull and intraplate deformation in the early Cenozoic
Herold, N., Buzan, J., Seton, M., Goldner, A., Green, J. A. M., Müller, R. D., Markwick, P., & Huber, M. (2014). A suite of early Eocene (~ 55 Ma) climate model boundary conditions. Geoscientific Model Development, 7(5), 2077-2090. doi: 10.5194/gmd-7-2077-2014.
A suite of early Eocene (~ 55 Ma) climate model boundary conditions
Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Williams, S., Seton, M., Skogseid, J., Heine, C., & Müller, R. D. (2014). Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 387, 107-119. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.11.017. Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching … Read more…
Citation
Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Williams, S., Seton, M., Skogseid, J., Heine, C., & Müller, R. D. (2014). Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 387, 107-119. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.11.017.
Abstract
The relief of the South Atlantic is characterized by elevated passive continental margins along southern Africa and eastern Brazil, and by the bathymetric asymmetry of the southern oceanic basin where the western flank is much deeper than the eastern flank. We investigate the origin of these topographic features in the present and over time since the Jurassic with a model of global mantle flow and lithospheric deformation. The model progressively assimilates plate kinematics, plate boundaries and lithospheric age derived from global tectonic reconstructions with deforming plates, and predicts the evolution of mantle temperature, continental crustal thickness, long-wavelength dynamic topography, and isostatic topography. … Read more…
Congratulations to Maria Seton, who was awarded the 2014 Dorothy Hill Award from the Australian Academy of Sciences, for her contributions to global plate tectonics, long-term sea-level change and global geodynamics and back-arc basin formation. Well done Maria!
Arculus, R., D’Hondt, S., Exon, N., Foster, C., Gallagher, S. J., Gurnis, M., … & Wallace, L. (2014). Exploring new drilling prospects in the Southwest Pacific. Scientific Drilling, 17, 45-50. doi: 10.5194/sd-17-45-2014. Exploring new drilling prospects in the southwest Pacific
Heine, C., & Brune, S. (2014). Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic: why there is no Saharan Atlantic Ocean. Geology, 42(3), 211-214. doi:10.1130/G35082.1 107-199. Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic: why there is no Saharan Atlantic Ocean Access supporting data (ref. 2014073)
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Butterworth, N. P., Talsma, A. S., Müller, R. D., Seton, M., Bunge, H. P., Schuberth, B. S. A., … & Heine, C. (2014). Geological, tomographic, kinematic and geodynamic constraints on the dynamics of sinking slabs. Journal of Geodynamics, 73, 1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jog.2013.10.006. Geological, tomographic, kinematic and geodynamic constraints on the dynamics of sinking slabs Supplementary material
Hosseinpour, M., Müller, R. D., Williams, S. E., & Whittaker, J. M. (2013). Full-fit reconstruction of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay. Solid Earth, 4(2), 461-479. doi :10.5194/se-4-461-2013. Full-fit reconstruction of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay Supplementary material
Citation
Gibbons, A., Whittaker, J. and R. Dietmar Müller, (2013), The break up of East Gondwana: assimilating constraints from Cretaceous ocean basins around India into a best-fit tectonic model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 118, 1-15: doi:10.1002/jgrb.50079
Summary
Published models for the Cretaceous seafloor-spreading history of East Gondwana result in unlikely tectonic scenarios for at least one of the plate boundaries involved and/or violate particular constraints from at least one of the associated ocean basins. We link East Gondwana spreading corridors by integrating magnetic and gravity anomaly data from the Enderby Basin off East Antarctica within a regional plate kinematic framework to identify a conjugate series of east-west-trending magnetic anomalies, M4 to M0 (~126.7–120.4 Ma). … Read more…
Citation
Müller, R. D., Dutkiewicz, A., Seton, M. and Gaina, C. (2013). Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, break-up and dispersal Geology. doi 10.1130/G34405.1.
Summary
Global oceans are known to have alternated between aragonite and calcite seas. These oscillations reflect changes in the Mg/Ca ratio of seawater, which control biomineralisation and the composition of marine carbonates and are thought to be caused by the time dependence of crustal accretion at mid-ocean ridge crests and associated high temperature mid-ocean ridge brine flux. Here we use global ocean basin reconstructions to demonstrate that these fluctuations are instead caused by the gradual growth and destruction of mid-ocean ridges and their relatively cool flanks during long-term tectonic cycles thus linking ocean chemistry to off-ridge low temperature hydrothermal flux. Early Jurassic aragonite seas were a consequence of supercontinent stability and minima in mid-ocean ridge length and basalt alteration. The break-up of Pangaea led to a gradual doubling in ridge length and a 50% increase in hydrothermal flux mainly through an enormous increase in ridge flank area, leading to enhanced alteration of basalt, lowered seawater Mg/Ca ratios and marine hypercalcification from 140 to 35 Ma. … Read more…
Maria Seton was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship on – Oceanic gateways: a primary control on global climate change?
Patrice Rey was interviewed for a Sydney Morning Herald MyCareer feature, as a ‘Man of Mars and Opals’! Download the article – pdf
EarthByte-developed GPlates software, represented by Prof Dietmar Müller, has been nominated for The Australian Innovation Challenge 2013 and it has become a finalist in the minerals and energy category! Read the article published in The Australian here
Citation
Flament, N., Gurnis, M., & Müller, R. D. (2013). A review of observations and models of dynamic topography. Lithosphere, 5(2), 189-210. doi: 10.1130/L245.1
Summary
The topography of Earth is primarily controlled by lateral differences in the density structure of the crust and lithosphere. In addition to this isostatic topography, flow in the mantle induces deformation of its surface leading to dynamic topography. This transient deformation evolves over tens of millions of years, occurs at long wavelength, and is relatively small (<2 km) in amplitude. Here, we review the observational constraints and modeling approaches used to understand the amplitude, spatial pattern, and time dependence of dynamic topography. … Read more…
Recent EarthByte research on opal exploration was recognised as an outstanding highlight and reflects the work of many of the group including, Andrew Merdith, Tom Landgrebe, Adriana Dutkiewicz and Patrice Rey. Congratulations to all of the contributors to the project and specifically to John Cannon and Michael Chin, the GPlates developers!
Flament, N., Coltice, N., & Rey, P. F. (2013). The evolution of the 87 Sr/86 Sr of marine carbonates does not constrain continental growth. Precambrian Research, 229, 177-188. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2011.10.009. The evolution of the 87 Sr/86 Sr of marine carbonates does not constrain continental growth
Intensive GPlates course, run by Dr Nathan Butterworth, held at the Centre for Exploration Targeting, UWA, 7-8 November 2013, number of participants: 15.
Mjelde, R., Goncharov, A., & Müller, R. D. (2013). The Moho: boundary above upper mantle peridotites or lower crustal eclogites? A global review and new interpretations for passive margins. Tectonophysics, 609, 636-650. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.03.001. The Moho: boundary above upper mantle peridotites or lower crustal eclogites? A global review and new interpretations for passive margins
EarthByte would like to welcome Professor Sanzhong Li who is visiting for 2 months from the Ocean University of China. We also welcome Shan Yu, a PhD student at the Ocean University of China who will study at EarthByte for 1 year. She will be developing plate reconstructions of the Paleotethys in central China and … Read more…
Coltice, N., Seton, M., Rolf, T., Müller, R. D., & Tackley, P. J. (2013). Convergence of tectonic reconstructions and mantle convection models for significant fluctuations in seafloor spreading. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 383, 92-100. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.09.032. Convergence of tectonic reconstructions and mantle convection models for significant fluctuations in seafloor spreading
GPlates News, a new email update on recently added GPlates functionality, new tutorials, and GPlates related research and downloadable datasets has been launched. View GPlates News here
The Big Data project and Earthbyte data-mining research was publicised in the “Data mining for gold” story on the Australia unlimited website. The project is now part of “Brand Australia“. Read the article here
Maloney, K. T., Clarke, G. L., Klepeis, K. A., & Quevedo, L. (2013). The Late Jurassic to present evolution of the Andean margin: Drivers and the geological record. Tectonics, 32(5), 1049-1065. doi: 10.1002/tect.20067. The Late Jurassic to present evolution of the Andean margin: Drivers and the geological record
Dr Nico Flament provides an expert opinion for the recent Rowley et al. 2013 study of USA continental margins and the influence of dynamic topography. Read the article here
Maria Seton et al.’s 2012 paper – Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma, was number 16 in the top 25 geology articles downloaded from Elsevier in the first half of 2013. Congratulations Maria! View the full top 25 list here Download the paper – pdf
The recently published paper by Simon Williams et al. 2013, on Early India-Australia spreading history revealed by newly detected Mesozoic magnetic anomalies in the Perth Abyssal Plain, was selected as one of three research highlights in the current edition of EOS. Well done! Download EOS research highlights – pdf Download the paper – pdf
Project Summary
Continents and sedimentary basins through time record fundamental Earth system cycles, reflecting environmental change, migration of fauna and flora and shifting coastlines. It was originally thought that successive advances and retreats of shallow inland seas mainly reflect global sea level variations (eustasy). It is now well known in principle that large-scale surface morphology such as the high topography of the East African Rift, the low-lying Amazon River Basin and the southwest to northeast tilt of the Australian continent are strongly controlled by processes deep within the Earth, but progress has been slow in quantifying the magnitude and time-dependence of these relationships. … Read more…
Congratulations to Nathaniel Butterworth who submitted his PhD thesis on 30th August! Nathan will be continuing to work at EarthByte in a post-doctoral position. Well done Nathan!
