Deep mantle structure as a reference frame for movements in and on the Earth

Since the Pangea supercontinent formed about 320 million years ago, plumes that sourced large igneous provinces and kimberlites have been derived from the edges of two stable thermochemical reservoirs at the core-mantle boundary. We test whether it is possible to maintain this remarkable surface-to-deep Earth correlation before Pangea through the development of a new plate reconstruction method and find that our reconstructions for the past 540 million years comply with known geological and tectonic constraints (opening and closure of oceans, mountain building, and more). These results have important implications for Earth history, including the style of mantle convection in the deep past and the long-term stability of mantle reservoirs.