EES 258/458: HOTSPOTS AND PLATE MOTIONS - SPRING 2005



Jan 14, 2005

Instructor: Prof. John A. Tarduno

TA's: Pavel Doubrovine (pavel@earth.rochester.edu)

Class Time: M, W, F 9-10 am (see below), Hutchison 229



Special Sessions to be Arranged:
Introduction to UNIX HTML

GMT tutorial HTML

GMT tutorial PDF

GMT reference HTML

GMT reference PDF

Text: Plate Tectonics, How it Works by A. Cox and R.B. Hart
Recommended: Scientific Papers and Presentations, M. Davis



Goals: The Course will provide a basic understanding of hotspot models, hotspot fixity and the relationships between hotspots, mantle plumes, true polar wander and plate motions. Hypothesis development and testing will be discussed.


Course Credit: 4 credit hours


Requirements: Attendance, presentations and a paper (proposal).

Presentations: Two types of presentations are required.
  1. Each week one student will be responsible for copying and distributing papers (for the following week) to the group. The student will give a 15 min. summary of these papers in class ending with a series of questions for discussion. The student will lead the discussion.
  2. Each student will give a presentation on the paper (research) topic chosen.



Paper: The final paper is a scientific paper of approximately 15 pages. Original figures are required.
     Please start the project early and consider submitting initial drafts for review by the professor.

Please schedule appointments with Sharon Hatch (sharon@earth.rochester.edu).
YOU SHOULD CHOOSE A TOPIC FOR RESEARCH BY THE END OF FEBRUARY.
BACKGROUND READING IN PLATE TECTONICS, COX AND HART:

Ch. 7 Finite Rotations
Ch. 8 Magnetism and Isochrons
Ch. 9 Paleomagnetic Poles
Ch. 10 Putting it all Together (esp. True Polar Wander, No Net Torque, Paleomagnetic Euler Poles and Plate Driving Mechanisms)




Jan. 14 Friday INTRODUCTION: J. Tarduno

Jan. 24 Monday CLASSIC HOTSPOT MODELS

Duncan, R.A. and D.A. Clague, in Ocean Basins and Margins Vol 7A (eds Nairn, A.E.M., Stehli, F.G. and S. Uyeda) 89-121 (Plenum, New York, 1985).

Morgan, W.J., Hotspot tracks and the opening of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, in The Sea, Vol. 7 (ed. Emiliani, C.), 443-487 (Wiley, New York, 1981).

Morgan, W.J., Hotspot tracks and the early rifting of the Atlantic, Tectonophysics, 94, 123-139, 1983.



Jan. 26 Wednesday MANTLE PLUME HEAD-TAIL MODELS AND LIPS

M.A. Richards, R.A. Duncan and V.E. Courtillot, Flood basalts and hotspot tracks, Plume heads and tails, Science, 246, 103-107, 1989.

Duncan, R.A. and M.R. Richards, Hotspots, mantle plumes, flood basalts and true polar wander, Reviews of Geophysics, 29, 31-50, 1991.

R.D. Muller, J.Y. Royer, L.A. Lawver, Revised plate motions relative to the hotspots from combined Atlantic and Indian Ocean hotspot tracks, Geology, 21, 275-278, 1993.

M.F. Coffin and O. Eldholm, Large Igneous Provinces: Crustal Structure, Dimensions, and External COnsequences, Rev. of Geophysics, 32, 1-36, 1994.



Feb. 2 Wednesday

Special Lecture: Alexei Smirnov: Origin and Nature of the Siberian Traps



Feb 4 Friday TESTING HOTSPOT MODELS WITH PLATE CIRCUITS

P. Molnar and J. Stock, Relative motions of hotspots in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans since Late Cretaceous time, Nature, 327, 587-591, 1987.

S. Cande, C. A. Raymond, J. Stock, W. F. Haxby, Geophysics of the Pitman Fracture Zone and Pacific-Antarctic Plate Motions During the Cenozoic, Science, 270, 947-953, 1995.

Raymond, C. A., J. M. Stock, and S. C. Cande (2000), Fast Paleogene motion of the Pacific hotspots from revised global plate circuit constraints, in The History and Dynamics of Global Plate Motion, Geophys. Monogr. Ser., vol. 121, edited by M. A. Richards et al., pp. 359–375, AGU, Washington, D. C.



Feb 9 Wednesday TESTING HOTSPOT MODELS AND TRUE POLAR WANDER WITH PALEOMAGNETISM

I

Goldreich, P. and A. Toomre, Some remarks on polar wandering, J. Geophys. Res., 74, 2555-2567, 1969.

J. Besse and V. Courtillot, Revised and synthetic apparent polar wander paths of the African, Eurasian, North American and Indian Plates, and true polar wander since 200 Ma, Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 4029-4050, 1991.

J. Besse and V. Courtillot, Apparent and true polar wander and the geometry of the geomagnetic field over the last 200 Myr, Journal of Geophysical Research, 107, 10.1029/2000JB000050, 2002.



Feb 11 Friday TESTING HOTSPOT MODELS AND TRUE POLAR WANDER WITH PALEOMAGNETISM

II

Tarduno, J.A. and J. Gee, Large-scale motion between Pacific and Atlantic hotspots, Nature, 378, 477-480, 1995.

Tarduno, J.A. and R. Cottrell, Paleomagnetic evidence for motion of the Hawaiian hotspot during formation of the Emperor seamounts, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 153, 171–180, 1997.

DiVenere, V., and D. V. Kent, Are the Pacific and Indo-Atlantic hotspots fixed? Testing the plate circuit though Antarctica, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 170, 105–117, 1999.

Tarduno, J. A., R. A. Duncan, D. W. Scholl, R. D. Cottrell, B. Steinberger, T. Thordarson, B. C. Kerr, C. R. Neal, M. Torii, and C. Carvallo, The Emperor Seamounts: Southward motion of the Hawaiian hotspot plume in Earth's mantle, Science, 301, 1064–1069, 2003.



Feb 16 Wednesday OTHER MODELS AND DEBATE

Courtillot, Vincent, Davaille, Anne, Besse, Jean, Stock, Joann, Three distinct types of hotspots in the Earth's mantle, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 205, no. 3-4 (20030110), 295-308, 2003.

BERNHARD STEINBERGER, RUPERT SUTHERLAND & RICHARD J. O'CONNELL, Prediction of Emperor-Hawaii seamount locations from a revised model of global plate motion and mantle flow, Nature, 430, 167-173, 2004.

Foulger G, Plumes, or plate tectonic processes?, ASTRONOMY & GEOPHYSICS 43 (6): 19-23 DEC 2002

Feb 23 UNIX review

Feb 25 GMT review

Feb 28 GMT review II

March 3 ROTATION PROGRAMS



WEEK OF 7 MARCH-- SPRING BREAK

WEEKS OF 14 MARCH, 21 MARCH - DEVELOP PROPOSAL IDEAS

APRIL 1 Friday PREAMBRIAN ISSUES

Kirschvink, J.L., R.L. Ripperdan and D.A. Evans, Evidence for a Large-Scale Reorganization of early Cambrian Continental Masses by Inertial Interchange True Polar Wander, Science, 277, 541, 1997.

Comment and Reply: Polar Wander and the Cambrian, Comment by T.H. Torsvik, J.G. Meert, M.A. Smethurst; Reply by D.A. Evans, R.L. Ripperdanm and J.L. Kirschvink, Science, 1998.

Others to be announced.



APRIL 6 Wednesday STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

APRIL 13 Wednsday STUDENT PRESENTATIONS

 Note: Addition class meetings may be scheduled the weeks of April 4, 11 and 18, depending on student proposal progress.

Papers Due Last Day of Classes, 27 April.

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