Implications of hotspot motion on global plate reconstructions

As part of the Ph.D thesis of Craig O'Neill under supervision of Dietmar Müller, a method of quantifying uncertainties of plate motions relative to moving hotspots, and a new moving hotspot reference frame of plate motions relative to the mantle in the Indo-Atlantic hemisphere were developed.
Together with Rupert Sutherland, and Richard J. O'Connell, a global moving hotspot reference frame of plate motions relative to the mantle, connecting the Indo-Atlantic and Pacific hemisphere with a plate chain through Australia and New Zealand, was developed. With a southward moving Hawaiian hotspot, hotspot tracks globally can be explained back to about 65 Ma. The figure (from the paper by Torsvik et al.) shows the best-fitting predicted (blue line) and observed (seen as gravity anomaly) tracks for Hawaii (Pacific hemisphere) and Tristan (Indo-Atlantic hemisphere) hotspots. Implications are predicted Cenozoic deformations in Antarctica. This research is also described in our poster presented by Rupert Sutherland at the 2004 AGU fall meeting, and an article by Axel Tillemans in Bild der Wissenschaft (in german).
In a paper with Carmen Gaina, we have shown that plate reconstructions predict parts of the Hawaiian hotspot track to be preserved in the Bering Sea.
An extensive treatment of global plate motion reference frames is found in a review article of Trond Torsvik and co-workers.
Power Point Presentation: A global plate motion mantle frame

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