Scripps researchers discover new force driving Earth's tectonic plates

University of California - San Diego ^ | Unknown

[decimon]

[decimon]

Plume push ping.

[Free Vulcan]

Oh bull, this is all driven by global warming and they know it.

[sauropod]

.

[tpmintx]

Wasn't this the plot line in the 2012 movie?

Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. ... Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world. IMDB.com Reference

[mountn man]

Beat me to it.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I want to see this illustrated in a kind of time-lapse "artist's conception" centered at that Reunion Hotspot and speeded up at a ratio of 1 second per million years.

[Paladin2]

So, when will the Idaho/Yellowstone hot spot blow again?

[Misterioso]

Planning your vacation?

[Paladin2]

I was thinking about moving there for a decade or so.

[Misterioso]

One of the most beautiful areas in the country. Envious.

[decimon]

Man killed by grizzly at Yellowstone National Park

[txhurl]

What would you do there?

[SunkenCiv]

Steve Cande and Dave Stegman have now discovered a new force that drives plate tectonics: Plumes of hot magma pushing up from Earth's deep interior... evidence that such mantle plume "hot spots," which can last for tens of millions of years and are active today at locations such as Hawaii, Iceland and the Galapagos, may work as an additional tectonic driver, along with push-pull forces.

Thanks decimon.

Fossil Mantle Plume Under South America
by William R. Corliss
Science Frontiers #103: Jan-Feb 1996

"In a challenge to a major aspect of the theory of plate tectonics, NSF-supported scientists have discovered the presence of an ancient conduit deep in the Earth's mantle beneath Brazil.

"The conduit appears to have remained geographically fixed with respect to the overlying continent despite thousands of kilometers of South American plate motion. This observation runs contrary to a major tenet of plate tectonic theory---that the motion of lithospheric plates is essentially independent of flow in the upper mantle beneath the plates--- and implies that the upper mantle and the overlying South American continent have remained coupled since the breakup of the Gondwanaland super-continent and opening of the South Atlantic Ocean some 120 million years ago. This result also implies that large-scale convection in the mantle may be responsible for the motion of the great continental plates, such as South America, where the driving force for plate motion has not been well understood."

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[bigheadfred]

What would you do there?

Hang out with me.

Magma plumes, eh? They need to check every spot FA Moochelle has been...and forewarn all of her future vay-kay spots...

[bigheadfred]

The bears remained at large.

That is hilarious.

[decimon]

The bears remained at large.

That is hilarious.

Do bears large in the woods? I guess they could have turned themselves in to a park ranger.

[bigheadfred]

I guess they could have turned themselves in to a park ranger.

And added impersonating an Officer? I think they are in enough trouble as it is.

[Quix]

This can’t possibly be true.

I’ve been assured by omniscient naysayers on FR that everything true about geology was known long ago.

/sarc pseudo-joke

[Paladin2]

I’d go fishing until it was time to go skiing.