GPlates: Building a Virtual Earth Through Deep Time

Müller, R. Dietmar; Cannon, John; Qin, Xiaodong; Watson, Robin J.; Gurnis, Michael; Williams, S.; Pfaffelmoser, Tobias; Seton, Maria; Russell, Stephen C.; Zahirovic, Sabin

doi:10.1029/2018gc007584

Cited by 518 publications

(371 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…Figure shows the velocity azimuth and magnitude for the Davis Strait using plate reconstruction histories (Matthews et al, ) and the GPlates software (Müller et al, ). According to this reconstruction, between 200 and 120 Ma there was no significant extension between Greenland and Eastern Canada.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the influence of changing shape and dip angle of generic styles of such weak scars is explored in detail in , Heron et al (2019), and Jourdon et al (2017), Salazar-Mora et al (2018), and additional models shown in the supporting information. Figure 4 shows the velocity azimuth and magnitude for the Davis Strait using plate reconstruction histories and the GPlates software (Müller et al, 2018). According to this reconstruction, between 200 and 120 Ma there was no significant extension between Greenland and Eastern Canada.…”

Section: Lithosphere Scarringmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Segmentation of Rifts Through Structural Inheritance: Creation of the Davis Strait

et al. 2019

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Mesozoic‐Cenozoic rifting between Greenland and North America created the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, while leaving preserved continental lithosphere in the Davis Strait, which lies between them. Inherited crustal structures from a Palaeoproterozoic collision have been hypothesized to account for the tectonic features of this rift system. However, the role of mantle lithosphere heterogeneities in continental suturing has not been fully explored. Our study uses 3‐D numerical models to analyze the role of crustal and subcrustal heterogeneities in controlling deformation. We implement continental extension in the presence of mantle lithosphere suture zones and deformed crustal structures and present a suite of models analyzing the role of local inheritance related to the region. In particular, we investigate the respective roles of crust and mantle lithospheric scarring during an evolving stress regime in keeping with plate tectonic reconstructions of the Davis Strait. Numerical simulations, for the first time, can reproduce first‐order features that resemble the Labrador Sea, Davis Strait, Baffin Bay continental margins, and ocean basins. The positioning of a mantle lithosphere suture, hypothesized to exist from ancient orogenic activity, produces a more appropriate tectonic evolution of the region than the previously proposed crustal inheritance. Indeed, the obliquity of the continental mantle suture with respect to extension direction is shown here to be important in the preservation of the Davis Strait. Mantle lithosphere heterogeneities are often overlooked as a control of crustal‐scale deformation. Here, we highlight the subcrust as an avenue of exploration in the understanding of rift system evolution.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Lithosphere Scarringmentioning

confidence: 99%

Segmentation of Rifts Through Structural Inheritance: Creation of the Davis Strait

et al. 2019

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“…These are included as supplementary material in various data formats (Table ) and available online as Google Earth overlays (topex.ucsd.edu). For simple visualization of all data products using a digital globe, we recommend the readers to install the freely available GPlates software (Müller et al, ) and open the GPlates project file (.gproj) provided in Supporting Information S1.…”

Section: Auxiliary Data Products Release Formats and Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…edu). For simple visualization of all data products using a digital globe, we recommend the readers to install the freely available GPlates software (Müller et al, 2018) and open the GPlates project file (.gproj) provided in Supporting Information S1.…”

Section: Auxiliary Data Products Release Formats and Visualizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Bathymetry and Topography at 15 Arc Sec: SRTM15+

Tozer

Sandwell

Smith

et al. 2019

Earth and Space Science

609

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An updated global bathymetry and topography grid is presented using a spatial sampling interval of 15 arc sec. The bathymetry is produced using a combination of shipboard soundings and depths predicted using satellite altimetry. New data consists of >33.6 million multibeam and singlebeam measurements collated by several institutions, namely, the National Geospatial‐Intelligence Agency, Japan Agency for Marine‐Earth Science and Technology, Geoscience Australia, Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. New altimetry data consists of 48, 14, and 12 months of retracked range measurements from Cryosat‐2, SARAL/AltiKa, and Jason‐2, respectively. With respect to SRTM15_PLUS (Olson et al.,), the inclusion of these new data results in a ∼1.4‐km improvement in the minimum wavelength recovered for sea surface free‐air gravity anomalies, a small increase in the accuracy of altimetrically derived predicted depths, and a 1.24% increase, from 9.60% to 10.84%, in the total area of ocean floor that is constrained by shipboard soundings at 15‐arc sec resolution. Bathymetric grid cells constrained by satellite altimetry have estimated uncertainties of ±150 m in the deep oceans and ±180 m between coastlines and the continental rise. Onshore, topography data are sourced from previously published digital elevation models, predominately SRTM‐CGIAR V4.1 between 60°N and 60°S. ArcticDEM is used above 60°N, while Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica is used below 62°S. Auxiliary grids illustrating shipboard data coverage, marine free‐air gravity anomalies, and vertical gradient gradients are also provided in common data formats.

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“…GPlates is a free plate reconstruction software (www.gplates.org) that allows reconstructing and analysing plate motions through geological time (Müller et al, 2018). In the following, we use a spacing of 50 km between individual sample points where we extract relative plate velocity and obliquity.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Oblique rifting: the rule, not the exception

Brune¹,

Williams²,

Müller³

2018

Preprint

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Abstract. Movements of tectonic plates often induce oblique deformation at divergent plate boundaries. This is in striking contrast with traditional conceptual models of rifting and rifted margin formation, which often assume 2D deformation 10 where the rift velocity is oriented perpendicular to the plate boundary. Here we quantify the validity of this assumption by analysing the kinematics of major continent-scale rift systems in a global plate tectonic reconstruction from the onset of Pangea breakup until present-day. We evaluate rift obliquity by joint examination of relative extension velocity and local rift trend using the script-based plate reconstruction software pyGPlates. Our results show that the global mean rift obliquity amounts to 34° with a standard deviation of 24°, using the convention that the angle of obliquity is spanned by extension 15 direction and rift trend normal. We find that more than ~70% of all rift segments exceeded an obliquity of 20° demonstrating that oblique rifting should be considered the rule, not the exception. In many cases, rift obliquity and extension velocity increase during rift evolution (e.g. Australia-Antarctica, Gulf of California, South Atlantic, India-Antarctica), which suggests an underlying geodynamic correlation via obliquity-dependent rift strength. Oblique rifting produces 3D stress and strain fields that cannot be accounted for in simplified 2D plane strain analysis. We therefore highlight the importance of 3D 20 approaches in modelling, surveying, and interpretation of most rift segments on Earth where oblique rifting is the dominant mode of deformation.

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GPlates: Building a Virtual Earth Through Deep Time

Cited by 518 publications

References 83 publications

Segmentation of Rifts Through Structural Inheritance: Creation of the Davis Strait

Segmentation of Rifts Through Structural Inheritance: Creation of the Davis Strait

Global Bathymetry and Topography at 15 Arc Sec: SRTM15+

Oblique rifting: the rule, not the exception

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