Plate Tectonics & Geodynamics

This animation shows a model for the mantle-convection-driven component of Australian surface topography (Müller et al., Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 2016). The model was calibrated against four locations in the Eastern Highlands of Australia where surface uplift had been estimated from river profile modelling by Czarnota et al. (J. Geophys. Res. 2014).

This animation shows a model of absolute plate motions and the age of the ocean crust through time centered on Australia using a plate model from Müller et al. (Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Science, 2016). The animation corresponds to snapshots of the tectonic evolution portrayed here as shown in Fig. 1 of Müller et al. (Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 2016).

Rapid southward motion of the Hawaiian plume, followed by a sharp slowdown, causes the sharp bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor hotspot track.

The video, created by Rakib Hassan, shows the southward motion of the modelled Hawaiian plume over geological time and the evolution of its tilt. Note the fast southward motion of the plume before 50 Ma, driven by the southward motion of its root at the northern edge of the Pacific Large Low-Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP). This motion came to a halt after 50 Ma. The black contour marks the 75% chemical concentration isosurface 100 km above the core mantle boundary. 

The video, created by Rakib Hassan, shows the evolution of mean poloidal deep mantle flow in a 300 km thick shell above the core mantle boundary over the last 140 million years. N-S oriented cross sections along two profiles through the Pacific Large Low-Shear Velocity Province (LLSVP) show the evolution of its edges driven by subduction-induced flow.