3 A Simple Twist of Plate: In Honor of the Career Contributions of the Dynamic Duo—Rick Blakely and Ray Wells—to Understanding Plate Interactions and Deformation in Cascadia

Wednesday, 15 May 2019
8:00 AM - 12:20 PM
Room C124

CRETACEOUS AND CENOZOIC PLATE INTERACTIONS ALONG THE CASCADIA MARGIN, PALEOLATITUDES, THE FIXED-HOTSPOT APPROXIMATION, AND TRUE POLAR WANDER

Paper number: 3-12
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 11:20 AM – 11:40 AM

Authors

Abstract

Understanding the history of plate interactions along the Cascadia margin, as well as along the rest of the circum-Pacific margin, requires a method for relating the motion of the Pacific basin plates relative to the surrounding continents. In this session honoring Rick Blakely and Ray Wells we plan to lay out the case for the usefulness of the reference frame in which it is assumed that hotspots are approximately fixed relative to one another (Morgan, 1981; Engebretson et al., 1985). We will present several lines of evidence that indicate that motion between hotspots has been much less than previously proposed by several groups. Moreover, paleomagnetic poles from both the Pacific plate and from the continents indicate several significant episodes of true polar wander during Cretaceous and Cenozoic time, some of which may relate to changes in the regime of global climate. The effect of true polar wander on the interpretation of the paleolatitude framework of North America will be discussed.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 51, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2019CD-329700

© Copyright 2019 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.