Magnetic Anomalies, Global Plate Motion and Making the Age Grid
Channel: Paul Wessel
Date: 2020-02-05

Dr. Maria Seton (Sydney University, Australia) gave a guest lecture via Skype in Spring 2012 for a graduate class on Advanced Plate Tectonics in SOEST, University of Hawaii at Manoa.  The students recorded the lecture and produced video podcasts of the event.  This is one of 8 such lectures from the course which was taught by Prof. Paul Wessel.

ABSTRACT:

"Global plate motion models are essential for providing a spatio-temporal context to geological and geophysical data and help uncover the driving forces of supercontinent break-up, separation and accretion, linkages between surface processes and the deep earth, modes of intra-plate deformation and mechanisms behind geological processes. There are three main types of global plate motion model: 1. “Geologically current” models that determine present day plate motions through a combination of spreading rates, fault azimuths and GPS measurements; 2. Traditional plate tectonic models based on the interpretation of the seafloor spreading record and/or paleomagnetic data to reconstruct the ocean basins, continents and terranes within an absolute reference framework; 3. Coupled geodynamic-plate models, which model plate boundary locations and mantle density heterogeneity to predict past and/or present plate motions. In this talk, I will focus on traditional plate reconstruction methods and demonstrate how marine geophysical data, such as magnetic and gravity anomaly data, is used to underpin global plate motion models and the digital map of the age of the ocean floor."