The role of mantle plumes in continental breakup: case histories from Gondwanaland
Abstract
After thirty years of plate-tectonic theory, the reasons why supercontinents disintegrate and disperse to form smaller continental plates remain enigmatic. Possible causes range from abnormally hot mantle upwellings, or plumes, to changes in plate-boundary driving forces. The breakup of the Gondwanaland super-continent, which started about 180 million years ago, provides an excellent case history against which to test models.
- Publication:
-
Nature
- Pub Date:
- September 1995
- DOI:
- 10.1038/377301a0
- Bibcode:
- 1995Natur.377..301S