A global plate motion model, named NUVEL-1, which describes current plate motions between 12 rigid plates is described, with special attention given to the method, data, and assumptions used Tectonic implications of the patterns that emerged from the results are discussed It is shown that wide plate boundary zones can form not only within the continental lithosphere but also within the oceanic lithosphere; eg, between the Indian and Australian plates and between the North American and South American plates Results of the model also suggest small but significant diffuse deformation of the oceanic lithosphere, which may be confined to small awkwardly shaped salients of major plates

Current plate motions

SUMMARY 
We determine best-fitting Euler vectors, closure-fitting Euler vectors, and a new global model (NUVEL-1) describing the geologically current motion between 12 assumed-rigid plates by inverting plate motion data we have compiled, critically analysed, and tested for self-consistency. We treat Arabia, India and Australia, and North America and South America as distinct plates, but combine Nubia and Somalia into a single African plate because motion between them could not be reliably resolved. The 1122 data from 22 plate boundaries inverted to obtain NUVEL-1 consist of 277 spreading rates, 121 transform fault azimuths, and 724 earthquake slip vectors. We determined all rates over a uniform time interval of 3.0m.y., corresponding to the centre of the anomaly 2A sequence, by comparing synthetic magnetic anomalies with observed profiles. The model fits the data well. Unlike prior global plate motion models, which systematically misfit some spreading rates in the Indian Ocean by 8–12mm yr−1, the systematic misfits by NUVEL-1 nowhere exceed ∼3 mm yr−1. The model differs significantly from prior global plate motion models. For the 30 pairs of plates sharing a common boundary, 29 of 30 P071, and 25 of 30 RM2 Euler vectors lie outside the 99 per cent confidence limits of NUVEL-1. Differences are large in the Indian Ocean where NUVEL-1 plate motion data and plate geometry differ from those used in prior studies and in the Pacific Ocean where NUVEL-1 rates are systematically 5–20 mm yr−1 slower than those of prior models. The strikes of transform faults mapped with GLORIA and Seabeam along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge greatly improve the accuracy of estimates of the direction of plate motion. These data give Euler vectors differing significantly from those of prior studies, show that motion about the Azores triple junction is consistent with plate circuit closure, and better resolve motion between North America and South America. Motion of the Caribbean plate relative to North or South America is about 7 mm yr−1 slower than in prior global models. Trench slip vectors tend to be systematically misfit wherever convergence is oblique, and best-fitting poles determined only from trench slip vectors differ significantly from their corresponding closure-fitting Euler vectors. The direction of slip in trench earthquakes tends to be between the direction of plate motion and the normal to the trench strike. Part of this bias may be due to the neglect of lateral heterogeneities of seismic velocities caused by cold subducting slabs, but the larger part is likely caused by independent motion of fore-arc crust and lithosphere relative to the overriding plate.

Cenozoic geological and plate tectonic evolution of SE Asia and the SW Pacific: computer-based reconstructions, model and animations

The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior.

SUMMARY
We describe best-fitting angular velocities and MORVEL, a new closure-enforced set of angular velocities for the geologically current motions of 25 tectonic plates that collectively occupy 97 per cent of Earth's surface. Seafloor spreading rates and fault azimuths are used to determine the motions of 19 plates bordered by mid-ocean ridges, including all the major plates. Six smaller plates with little or no connection to the mid-ocean ridges are linked to MORVEL with GPS station velocities and azimuthal data. By design, almost no kinematic information is exchanged between the geologically determined and geodetically constrained subsets of the global circuit—MORVEL thus averages motion over geological intervals for all the major plates. Plate geometry changes relative to NUVEL-1A include the incorporation of Nubia, Lwandle and Somalia plates for the former Africa plate, Capricorn, Australia and Macquarie plates for the former Australia plate, and Sur and South America plates for the former South America plate. MORVEL also includes Amur, Philippine Sea, Sundaland and Yangtze plates, making it more useful than NUVEL-1A for studies of deformation in Asia and the western Pacific. Seafloor spreading rates are estimated over the past 0.78 Myr for intermediate and fast spreading centres and since 3.16 Ma for slow and ultraslow spreading centres. Rates are adjusted downward by 0.6–2.6 mm yr−1 to compensate for the several kilometre width of magnetic reversal zones. Nearly all the NUVEL-1A angular velocities differ significantly from the MORVEL angular velocities. The many new data, revised plate geometries, and correction for outward displacement thus significantly modify our knowledge of geologically current plate motions. MORVEL indicates significantly slower 0.78-Myr-average motion across the Nazca–Antarctic and Nazca–Pacific boundaries than does NUVEL-1A, consistent with a progressive slowdown in the eastward component of Nazca plate motion since 3.16 Ma. It also indicates that motions across the Caribbean–North America and Caribbean–South America plate boundaries are twice as fast as given by NUVEL-1A. Summed, least-squares differences between angular velocities estimated from GPS and those for MORVEL, NUVEL-1 and NUVEL-1A are, respectively, 260 per cent larger for NUVEL-1 and 50 per cent larger for NUVEL-1A than for MORVEL, suggesting that MORVEL more accurately describes historically current plate motions. Significant differences between geological and GPS estimates of Nazca plate motion and Arabia–Eurasia and India–Eurasia motion are reduced but not eliminated when using MORVEL instead of NUVEL-1A, possibly indicating that changes have occurred in those plate motions since 3.16 Ma. The MORVEL and GPS estimates of Pacific–North America plate motion in western North America differ by only 2.6 ± 1.7 mm yr−1, ≈25 per cent smaller than for NUVEL-1A. The remaining difference for this plate pair, assuming there are no unrecognized systematic errors and no measurable change in Pacific–North America motion over the past 1–3 Myr, indicates deformation of one or more plates in the global circuit. Tests for closure of six three-plate circuits indicate that two, Pacific–Cocos–Nazca and Sur–Nubia–Antarctic, fail closure, with respective linear velocities of non-closure of 14 ± 5 and 3 ± 1 mm yr−1 (95 per cent confidence limits) at their triple junctions. We conclude that the rigid plate approximation continues to be tremendously useful, but—absent any unrecognized systematic errors—the plates deform measurably, possibly by thermal contraction and wide plate boundaries with deformation rates near or beneath the level of noise in plate kinematic data.

Geologically current plate motions

Magnetic and bathymetric data from the eastern Pacific have been analyzed and a model for the evolution of the Galapagos region developed. The Farallon plate appears to have broken apart along a pre-existing Pacific-Farallon fracture zone, possibly the Marquesas fracture zone, at about 25 m.y. B.P. to form the Cocos and Nazca plates. This break is marked on the Nazca plate topographically by the Grijalva scarp and magnetically by a rough-smooth boundary coincident with the scarp. The oldest Cocos-Nazca magnetic anomalies parallel this boundary, implying that the early Cocos-Nazca spreading center trended east-northeast. This system soon reorganized into an approximately east-west rise–north-south transform configuration, which has persisted until the present, and the Pacific-Cocos-Nazca triple junction has since migrated north from its original location near lat 5°S. If correct, the combination of these simple geometric constraints produced the “enigmatic” east-trending anomalies south of the Carnegie Ridge.

The axes of the Cocos-Nazca spreading center and the Carnegie Ridge are essentially parallel; this can lead to paradoxical conclusions about interpretation of the Cocos and Carnegie Ridges as hotspot tracks. Hey and others (1977) have shown that recent accretion on the Cocos-Nazca spreading center has been asymmetric, resulting at least in part from small discrete jumps of the rise axis. I show here that the geometric objections to both the “hot-spot” and “ancestral-ridge” hypotheses on the origin of the Cocos and Carnegie Ridges can be resolved with an asymmetric-accretion model. However, all forms of the ancestral-ridge hypothesis encounter more severe geometric difficulties, and these results support the hotspot hypothesis.

After further elaboration of the hotspot hypothesis by Johnson and Lowrie (1972) and Hey and others (1973), Sclater and Klitgord (1973) examined both the hotspot and ancestral-ridge hypotheses and decided that both should be rejected, concluding that the Cocos and Carnegie Ridges “are not tectonically related” (p. 6973).

The difficulty in the Galapagos area arises primarily because the older magnetic anomalies have proven extremely difficult to correlate, surprisingly so considering the high data density and the ease with which the very young anomalies are correlated. An important problem is the reason for this difficulty in correlating older anomalies — either clearly recognizable anomalies were never formed here, or some mechanism has acted in this area to destroy them after they were formed.

On the basis of all available evidence, including new data presented here, I conclude that a model based on the hotspot hypothesis, with the modification of asymmetric accretion resulting at least in part from discrete jumps of the rise axis as discussed by Hey and others (1973) and demonstrated by Hey and others (1977), successfully meets the objection of Sclater and Klitgord (1973) and allows us to outline the history of the area from the break-up of the Farallon plate and birth of the Cocos-Nazca spreading center to the present. The “instantaneous” (a term Hey and others, 1977, have examined) configuration of plate boundaries and motions (Fig. 1) has generated a wedge of crust spread from the Cocos-Nazca spreading center, which is characterized by a slow spreading rate, rough topography, and strong magnetic anomalies. This wedge, termed the Galapagos gore by Holden and Dietz (1972) and discussed in detail by Hey and others (1977), is surrounded by crust spread from the Pacific-Cocos and Pacific-Nazca spreading centers which has the smooth morphology common to fast-spreading rises and low-amplitude magnetic anomalies, as both these segments of the East Pacific Rise are oriented nearly parallel to the Earth's magnetic field vector. My model explains the location and orientation of the magnetic and bathymetric rough-smooth boundaries that thus bound the gore and implies that there are two genetically different magnetic and bathymetric boundaries in the area.

Tectonic evolution of the Cocos-Nazca spreading center

Spreading center jumps identified west of the Galapagos Islands near 95°W occur in a pattern consistent with the propagating rift hypothesis. A new rift is gradually breaking through the Cocos plate. Each successive jump is slightly longer than the preceding jump. The new spreading center grows at a new azimuth toward the west as the old one dies. The jumps are a manifestation of rift propagation. We extend the analysis of propagating rifts to the case of continuous propagation and predict patterns of magnetic anomalies and bathymetry consistent with the observed patterns. In particular, we correctly predict the trends of fossil spreading centers and V patterns of magnetic anomaly offsets required by the propagating rift hypothesis. Similar V patterns have been observed on many other spreading centers and have been interpreted in various ways. The propagating rift hypothesis appears to offer a simple explanation, consistent with rigid plate tectonics, for each of these patterns. This hypothesis may also have important implications for continental rifting.

Richard Hey

Papers

Tectonic evolution of the Cocos-Nazca spreading center

Propagating rifts on midocean ridges

A new class of “pseudofaults” and their bearing on plate tectonics: A propagating rift model

Petrologic consequences of rift propagation on oceanic spreading ridges

Subduction of Aseismic Oceanic Ridges: Effects on Shape, Seismicity, and Other Characteristics of Consuming Plate Boundaries