Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Problematic plate reconstruction

Nature Geoscience volume 5, pages 676–677 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor

The magnetic model central to the Bronner et al.3 paper is plausible (although no more so than models based on M-series geomagnetic reversal data2,7,8,9), but it is problematic in terms of plate reconstructions. Bronner and colleagues propose that an offset between the axes of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Newfoundland–Iberia rift at the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fracture Zone around 125 Myr ago (M0 offset ∼70 km; bold dashed lines, Fig. 1b) inhibited northward transport of magma from the Southeast Newfoundland Ridge for about 10 Myr. If true, such a scenario would necessitate rapid propagation of magma through the rift by 112 Myr ago, and thus require the J anomaly there to have formed almost isochronally. During the period between 125 and 112 Myr ago, the conjugate J Anomaly Ridge and Madeira Tore Rise south of the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fracture Zone became widely separated (Fig. 1b). However, by about 84 Myr ago (chron C34, Fig. 1d), the Madeira Tore Rise north of the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fracture Zone was collinear with the Madeira Tore Rise to the south and has remained so to the present7. Thus, the scenario proposed by Bronner and colleagues would require that: (1) a left-lateral offset of the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fracture Zone of more than 100 km that existed about 112 Myr ago (Fig. 1b) reversed to become a 100-km right-lateral offset by 84 Myr ago (Fig. 1d); (2) the plate separation rate just north of the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fracture Zone was at least ∼1.5 times faster than to the south for some period after 112 Myr ago, but it dramatically slowed to the African–North American rate by 84 Myr ago; and (3) within the same time frame, separation between the Iberian and North American plates serendipitously aligned the formerly offset segments of the Madeira Tore Rise located north and south of the Newfoundland–Gibraltar Fracture Zone.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: North Atlantic plate reconstructions.

References

  1. Tucholke, B. E., Sawyer, D. S. & Sibuet, J-C. in Imaging, Mapping and Modelling Continental Lithosphere Extension and Breakup (eds Karner, G., Manatschal, G. & Pinheiro, L.) 9–46 (Geol. Soc.Special Publication 282, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Tucholke, B. E. & Sibuet, J-C. in Proc. Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results Vol. 210 (eds Tucholke, B. E., Sibuet, J-C. & Klaus, A.) 1–56 (Ocean Drilling Program, 2007).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bronner, A., Sauter, D., Manatschal, G., Péron-Pinvidic, G. & Munschy, M. Nature Geosci. 4, 549–553 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Merle, R. et al. J. Geol. Soc. Lond. 166, 879–894 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Rabinowitz, P. D., Cande, S. C. & Hayes, D. E. Science 202, 71–73 (1978).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Tucholke, B. E. & Ludwig, W. J. J. Geophys. Res. 87, 9389–9407 (1982).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Srivastava, S. P. et al. Tectonophysics 184, 229–260 (1990).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Srivastava, S. P., Sibuet, J-C., Cande, S., Roest, W. R. & Reid, I. R. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 182, 61–76 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Russell, S. M. & Whitmarsh, R. B. Geophys. J. Int. 154, 706–730 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Müller, R. D., Royer, J-Y. & Lawver, L. A. Geology 21, 275–278 (1993).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, 02543, Massachusetts, USA

    Brian E. Tucholke

  2. Ifremer Centre de Brest, BP 70, 44 rue du Cloître, Plouzané Cedex, Plouzané, 29280, 29280, France, France

    Jean-Claude Sibuet

Authors
  1. Brian E. Tucholke
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jean-Claude Sibuet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Brian E. Tucholke or Jean-Claude Sibuet.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tucholke, B., Sibuet, JC. Problematic plate reconstruction. Nature Geosci 5, 676–677 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1596

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1596

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing