Geologists 'resurrect' missing tectonic plate

Phys.org ^ | 10/20/2020 | Sara Tubbs, University of Houston

[BenLurkin]

A team of geologists at the University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics believes they have found the lost plate in northern Canada by using existing mantle tomography images—similar to a CT scan of the earth's interior. The findings, published in Geological Society of America Bulletin, could help geologists better predict volcanic hazards as well as mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.

"Volcanoes form at plate boundaries, and the more plates you have, the more volcanoes you have," said Jonny Wu, assistant professor of geology in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "Volcanoes also affect climate change. So, when you are trying to model the earth and understand how climate has changed since time, you really want to know how many volcanoes there have been on earth."

Wu and Spencer Fuston, a third-year geology doctoral student, applied a technique developed by the UH Center for Tectonics and Tomography called slab unfolding to reconstruct what tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean looked like during the early Cenozoic Era. The rigid outermost shell of Earth, or lithosphere, is broken into tectonic plates and geologists have always known there were two plates in the Pacific Ocean at that time called Kula and Farallon. But there has been discussion about a potential third plate, Resurrection, having formed a special type of volcanic belt along Alaska and Washington State.

Using 3-D mapping technology, Fuston applied the slab unfolding technique to the mantle tomography images to pull out the subducted plates before unfolding and stretching them to their original shapes.

[Monkey Face]

Yes, you are!!

And so are we! ;o]

[ArGee]

OK. I’m here. But I can’t find my pet liberal anywhere. I’m afraid it may still be over at the old digs screeching things like, “Black men just want access to the patriarchy” or “It’s your lack of awareness of your oppression that demonstrates just how oppressed you really are.”

He’s harmless unless he gets loose on a college campus.

Or on Facebook.

[ArGee]

On the whim of the rocks

Smarter than the elected congresscritters.

Or their voters.

[ArGee]

GROAN

Excellent!

[Monkey Face]

I think that’s too difficult a concept for Ms Pelosi. Not to mention the fact that she’s slippery enough, she could slip right between any plates, tectonic or otherwise!

However, I suspect her political days are over.

[Dead Corpse]

"However, I suspect her political days are over."

Good morning, Sunday morning...

What makes you say that?

[Monkey Face]

Heh-heh-heh...

A lady never tells... ;o])

[Darksheare]

“We let CLONK decide!”
“Clonk?”
Giant boulder lands next to the questioner.

[freedumb2003]

Hey, we are talking about plates here:

[Robert A Cook PE]

Ugh. Coffee. /nightshift

[Darksheare]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZPWnVTQ5ks

[Tax-chick]

O hai. I was having a nap. Best way to get through a move, you know.

[NicknamedBob]

I like the suggestion that the evidence for tectonic activity is “shaky at best”.

[Tax-chick]

And explosive at worst.

[ArGee]

Hey. You have your tectonics and I have my tectonics. There’s no such thing as absolute tectonics.

[NicknamedBob]

For tectonic activity, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

[tet68]

I didn’t sub-duct anyone, no matter what she says!

[Tax-chick]

It can be hard to keep people’s attention on something happening so slowly.

[Darksheare]

It is hard to pin down.

[Dead Corpse]

There could be rumbles in the scientific community over this...