The Triple-Junction Structure of Mantle Plumes and Continental Rifting

G. A. Houseman

doi:10.1071/EG991195

ISSN: 0812-3985
E-ISSN: 1834-7533

The Triple-Junction Structure of Mantle Plumes and Continental Rifting
Authors G. A. Houseman^a
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^a Department of Earth SciencesMonash University, Clayton, , VIC, 3168
Publisher: Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists
Source: Exploration Geophysics, Volume 22, Issue 1, Mar 1991, p. 195 - 198
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/EG991195
- Published online: 01 Mar 1991

Abstract

Numerical experiments show that the hot thermal plumes in a convecting mantle have a complex 3-dimensional stucture that is approximately axisymmetric near the top of the convecting layer, but followed down towards the base of the layer evolves into a branched structure formed by the bifurcation of a hot sheet. The uplift above a thermal plume is thus characterised by a dominant axisymmetric component, to which a small, irregular, but characteristically triple-armed, perturbation is added. An explanation for the characteristic triple-junction geometry of continental rifts has long been sought in terms of the mechanical properties of the lithosphere, but these experiments suggest that the rift may inherit its basic geometry from the underlying thermal plume.

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1991-03-01

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References

Burke, K., and Dewey, J. F., (1973). ‘Plume-generated triple-junctions: key indicators in applying plate tectonics to old rocks’, J. Geol., 81, 406-433.
Burke, K., and Whiteman, A. J., (1973). ‘Uplift, rifting and the breakup of Africa’, In: Tarling, D. H., & Runcorn, S. K., Eds, Implications of Continental drift to the Earth Sciences, 2, 735-755, Academic Press, London.
Cloos, H., (1939). ‘Hebung-spaltung-vulcanismus’, Geol. Rundschau, 30, 405-527.
Houseman, G. A., (1990). ‘Boundary conditions and efficient solution algorithms for the potential function formulation of the 3-dimensional viscous flow equations’, Geophys. J. Int., 100, 33-38.
Houseman, G. A., (1990). ‘The thermal structure of mantle plumes: axisymmetric or triple-junction?’, Geophys. J. Int., 102, 15-24.
Zuber, M. T, Parmentier, E. M., and Fletcher, R. C, (1986). ‘Extension of continental lithosphere: a model for two scales of Basin and Range deformation, J. Geophys. Res., 19, 4826-4838.

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Article Type: Research Article

Keyword(s): continental rifts; extension tectonics; mantle plumes

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The Triple-Junction Structure of Mantle Plumes and Continental Rifting

Abstract

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