An international team of geoscientists has created the first continuous complete plate model with evolving plate boundaries that stretch one billion years ago to the present day.
Plate tectonics is a unifying theory of modern geology, which explicitly connects the evolution and processes that bridge the earth’s mantle, lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere.
Tectonic forces control the rate of uplift and erosion where continents collide or separate and the flow of energy between oceans, lithosphere and mantle modulates as continental configurations develop.
Evolving plate tectonic configurations also determine changes in the distribution of species over different land masses and deduce the rate of chemical flow between the earth’s surface and the deep interior.
Full-plate models published over the past decade collectively span the last billion years. However, each of these models covers different periods or areas of the world, and each model is based on different assumptions and hypotheses, and places different emphasis on assumptions of the geological record.
Although continental movements and evolution of the plate boundary have been categorized in some way over the past billion years, there is at this time no fully continuous model that defines the Tectonic history of the Earth.
“Our planet is unique in the way it houses life,” said Professor Dietmar Müller, a researcher at the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Sydney.
“But this is only possible because geological processes, such as plate tectonics, provide a planetary life support system.”
“For the first time, a complete model of tectonics was built, with all the boundaries,” said dr. Michael Tetley, a researcher at the University of Lyon, said.
“On a human time scale, things move in centimeters a year, but as we can see from the animation, the continents have been everywhere over time.”
“A place like Antarctica that we consider today as a cold, icy inhospitable place was actually once a nice vacation destination at the equator.”
Distribution of the earth’s continental crust, basins and plate boundaries in the plate model at present. Brown polygons are areas of continental lithosphere in the Neoproterozoic, blue polygons are areas of the contemporary continental lithosphere. Abbreviations: A – Amazon; Ant – Antarctica; AUS – Australia; BP – Borborema Province; CCT – Chinese Central Tianshan; Cu – Cuyania; CY – Chu Yili; K – Kalahari; KMT – Krygyz Middle Tianshan; KNT – Krygyz North Tianshan; KST – Krygyz South Tianshan; NB – Nigeria-Benin; NC – North China; P – Paranapanema; ANS – Arab Nubian Shield; Qa – Qaidam; Qi – Qilian; RDLP – Rio de la Plata; SC – South China; SM – Sahara Metacraton; T – Tarim; WAC – West African Craton. Image Credit: Merdith et al., doi: 10.1016 / j.earscirev.2020.103477.
“The planet Earth is incredibly dynamic, with the surface consisting of plates that constantly disperse each other in a unique way among the known rocky planets,” said dr. Sabin Zahirovic, a researcher from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, said.
“These plates move with the rapid growth of the nails, but if a billion years are proclaimed in 40 seconds, an enchanting dance is revealed.”
“Oceans are opening up and closing down, continents are spreading and recombining regularly into huge supercontinents.”
The team’s billion – year model will enable scientists to better understand how the inside of the earth dissipates heat, mixes chemically and loses heat through seabed dispersal and volcanism.
It will also help researchers understand how climate has changed, how ocean currents have changed and how nutrients have flowed from the deep earth to stimulate biological evolution.
Simply put, this complete model will help explain how our home, Planet Earth, became habitable for complex beings. Life on earth would not exist without plate tectonics, ”said Professor Müller.
“With this new model, we are closer to understanding how this beautiful blue planet has become our cradle.”
The study is published in the journal Geoscientific reviews.
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Andrew S. Merdith et al. 2021. The expansion of the complete plate-tectonic models in the deep time: the coupling of the Neoproterozoic and the Phanerozoic. Geoscientific reviews 214: 103477; doi: 10.1016 / j.earscirev.2020.103477