Lost and found: Geologists 'resurrect' missing tectonic plate
Long-debated plate located in Northern Canada using 3D mapping technology


Date:
October 20, 2020
Source:
University of Houston
Summary:
A team of geologists believes they have found the lost plate
known as Resurrection in northern Canada by using existing mantle
tomography images.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The existence of a tectonic plate called Resurrection has long been
a topic of debate among geologists, with some arguing it was never
real. Others say it subducted -- moved sideways and downward -- into
the earth's mantle somewhere in the Pacific Margin between 40 and 60
million years ago.


==========================================================================
A team of geologists at the University of Houston College of Natural
Sciences and Mathematics believes they have found the lost plate in
northern Canada by using existing mantle tomography images -- similar to
a CT scan of the earth's interior. The findings, published in Geological Society of America Bulletin, could help geologists better predict volcanic hazards as well as mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.

"Volcanoes form at plate boundaries, and the more plates you have, the
more volcanoes you have," said Jonny Wu, assistant professor of geology
in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "Volcanoes also
affect climate change. So, when you are trying to model the earth and understand how climate has changed since time, you really want to know
how many volcanoes there have been on earth." Wu and Spencer Fuston,
a third-year geology doctoral student, applied a technique developed
by the UH Center for Tectonics and Tomography called slab unfolding
to reconstruct what tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean looked like
during the early Cenozoic Era. The rigid outermost shell of Earth, or lithosphere, is broken into tectonic plates and geologists have always
known there were two plates in the Pacific Ocean at that time called Kula
and Farallon. But there has been discussion about a potential third plate, Resurrection, having formed a special type of volcanic belt along Alaska
and Washington State.

"We believe we have direct evidence that the Resurrection plate
existed. We are also trying to solve a debate and advocate for which
side our data supports," Fuston said.

Using 3D mapping technology, Fuston applied the slab unfolding technique
to the mantle tomography images to pull out the subducted plates before unfolding and stretching them to their original shapes.

"When 'raised' back to the earth's surface and reconstructed, the
boundaries of this ancient Resurrection tectonic plate match well with
the ancient volcanic belts in Washington State and Alaska, providing a
much sought after link between the ancient Pacific Ocean and the North
American geologic record," explained Wu.

This study is funded by a five-year, $568,309 National Science Foundation CAREER Award led by Wu.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trIMtS098PQ&feature=emb_logo

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Houston. Original
written by Sara Tubbs.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Spencer Fuston, Jonny Wu. Raising the Resurrection plate from an
unfolded-slab plate tectonic reconstruction of northwestern
North America since early Cenozoic time. GSA Bulletin, 2020; DOI:
10.1130/B35677.1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201020131403.htm

--- up 8 weeks, 1 day, 6 hours, 50 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1337:3/111)