Deformable plate tectonics and regional geodynamic model of the Arctic region and Northeastern Asia

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：L.I. Lobkovsky ; ^{llobkovsky@ocean.ru" class="auth_mail" title="E-mail the corresponding author}
• 关键词：postulates of plate tectonics ; Euler&rsquo ; s theorem ; deformable plates ; Cretaceous and Cenozoic evolution of the Arctic and Northeastern Asia ; subduction-induced upper mantle convection
• 刊名：Russian Geology and Geophysics
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：March 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：57
• 期：3
• 页码：371-386
• 全文大小：4246 K

文摘

The difficulties and contradictions of the classical concept of plate tectonics are discussed. It was shown the postulate of rigid plates and Euler’s theorem on the motion of rigid body with one fixed point, which is the basis of the kinematic description of plate tectonics, cannot be universally applied, e.g., to the analysis of Cretaceous reconstructions of the North Atlantic and Arctic. The second postulate of the existence of lithosphere as separate and distinct tectonic plates, which is equivalent to the assumption on the continuity of all plate boundaries, is not satisfied. This study provides a generalization of the theory of classical plate tectonics, in which plates are treated as deformable bodies, the concept of deformable plate tectonics. The study also discusses a new regional geodynamic model for the Cretaceous and Cenozoic evolution of lithosphere beneath Arctic and Northeastern Asia. The model is based on the assumption of a laterally extended convection cell in the upper mantle driven by a conveyor-belt-like process of subduction of the Pacific plate. The proposed model provides a physically sound explanation for the standard tectonomagmatic processes, such as island arc roll-back and opening of back-arc basins, formation of continental rift zones and igneous provinces at great distances (over 1000 km) from subduction zones, etc.