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.

[Tax-chick]

We don’t let little things like time bother us here.

[Vaquero]

Flux capacitor....fluxing.

[Tax-chick]

Keep back a safe distance!

[null and void]

An old classic re-imagined and revisited...

pookie18...

[Monkey Face]

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;o]

[Tax-chick]

Kitteh is goin on teh trip.

[Monkey Face]

In da suitcase, hidin’ in ur cloze!

Good morning. I’m heading for the shower. It’s a chilly 74° in here and almost 10° cooler outside. I was liking the heat!

More paper stuff to do today but Charlie’s letter comes first. I can’t seem to get ahead of this stuff. When I was planning it, it seemed like maybe an hour’s worth of work. It’s taken almost four hours so far and I’m still not done. :o|

[Tax-chick]

Life is like that. I need to check the cat food levels.

[Monkey Face]

Can I just go back to bed and start this day over? Please? Somebody?

[Tax-chick]

It’s okay with me if you go back to bed. If I was in your time zone, I’d still be asleep!

[ArGee]

FWIW: Baby Jar-Jar is humor. NOBODY liked Jar-Jar enough to try to find out what he was like as a baby. Jar-Jar was probably the biggest mistake Lucas ever made with the series, and he made a few.

[ArGee]

I saw something similar on a T-Shirt. Don’t pick a fight with old people. The older you are the less a “life sentence” is a deterrent.

[ArGee]

w00t!

[ArGee]

Good morning. Happy Friday!

[Vaquero]

The actual quote was from a Steinbeck piece( don’t remember which). I replaced the words ‘old man’ with ‘ old guy’.

[Tax-chick]

It is Friday. I have it on the best authority.

[Tax-chick]

Lucas was deeply offended for many years that people didn’t like the character. He seemed unable to accept that audiences might have different tastes from his.

[Tax-chick]

I’m waiting for a new supply of hot water, so I can take a shower. How could we be out of hot water when it’s not even 8:30 a.m. yet?

[Vaquero]

Sounds like you hot water heater is on the fritz.

[Tax-chick]

I think it’s my family members.