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Can Earth's Rotation and Tidal Despinning Drive Plate Tectonics?

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Can Earth's Rotation and Tidal Despinning Drive Plate Tectonics? 2060-54 Advanced School on Non-linear Dynamics and Earthquake Prediction 28 September - 10 October, 2009 Can Earth's rotation and tidal despinning drive plate tectonics? C. Doglioni Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra Università La Sapienza Rome Italy ————————————— [email protected] ARTICLE IN PRESS TECTO-124646; No of Pages 14 Tectonophysics xxx (2009) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Tectonophysics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tecto Can Earth's rotation and tidal despinning drive plate tectonics? Federica Riguzzi a,c,⁎, Giuliano Panza b, Peter Varga d, Carlo Doglioni a,⁎ a Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università Sapienza, Roma, Italy b Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Trieste, and ICTP, Italy c Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Roma, Italy d Geodetic and Geophysical Research Institute, Seismological Observatory, Budapest, Hungary article info abstract Article history: We re-evaluate the possibility that Earth's rotation contributes to plate tectonics on the basis of the following Received 9 January 2009 observations: 1) plates move along a westerly polarized flow that forms an angle relative to the equator close Accepted 10 June 2009 to the revolution plane of the Moon; 2) plate boundaries are asymmetric, being their geographic polarity Available online xxxx the first order controlling parameter; unlike recent analysis, the slab dip is confirmed to be steeper along W-directed subduction zones; 3) the global seismicity depends on latitude and correlates with the decadal Keywords: oscillations of the excess length of day (LOD); 4) the Earth's deceleration supplies energy to plate tectonics Plate tectonics – Earth's rotation comparable to the computed budget dissipated by the deformation processes; 5) the Gutenberg Richter Tidal despinning law supports that the whole lithosphere is a self-organized system in critical state, i.e., a force is acting Earth's energy budget contemporaneously on all the plates and distributes the energy over the whole lithospheric shell, a condition that can be satisfied by a force acting at the astronomical scale. Assuming an ultra-low viscosity layer in the upper asthenosphere, the horizontal component of the tidal oscillation and torque would be able to slowly shift the lithosphere relative to the mantle. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction lative to the hotspot reference frame (Ricard et al., 1991; Gripp and Gordon, 2002; Crespi et al., 2007). The energy budget of plate tectonics and the basic mechanisms In this article we review a number of topics about the rotational that move plates are far to be entirely understood. A very large contribution to plate tectonics, finally proposing a mechanical model number of papers have suggested strong evidence for a system driven to explain it. primarily by lateral density heterogeneities, controlled by the thermal cooling of the Earth, particularly with the cool slab pulling the attached plates (Conrad and Lithgow-Bertelloni, 2003). However, a 2. Evidences for a worldwide asymmetry number of issues contradict a simple thermal model capable to generate the Earth's geodynamics (Anderson, 1989). Large plates It has been shown how plate motions followed and follow a move coherently, being decoupled at the LVZ (Fig. 1). They show that mainstream (Fig. 2) that can be reconstructed from ocean magnetic the force acting on them is uniformly distributed and not concentrated anomalies and space geodesy data (Doglioni,1990; Crespi et al., 2007). to their margins. For example, the inferred slab pull would be stronger This flow is polarized toward the “west” relative to the mantle. The net than the strength plates can sustain under extension (pull). Moreover, rotation is only an average value in the deep hotspot reference frame, the geological and geophysical asymmetries of rift and subduction but it rises to a complete polarization in the shallow hotspot reference zones as a function of their polarity (Doglioni et al., 2007) may be frame (Fig. 2). The latitude range of the net rotation equator is about interpreted as controlled by some astronomical mechanical shear the same of the Moon maximum declination range (±28°) during the (Scoppola et al., 2006). nutation period (≈18.6 yr). Further indications come from the fact The interest in the Earth's rotation as driving plate tectonics goes that the induced geopotential variations and the solid Earth tide back to the theory of Wegener and to a number of papers in the early modeling (McCarthy and Petit, 2004) generate maximum amplitudes seventies (Bostrom, 1971; Knopoff and Leeds, 1972). This relation is of the Earth bulges (≈30 cm) propagating progressively within the based on the observation that plates have, for example, a westerly same latitude range. In particular, the track of the semidiurnal bulge directed polarization relative to Antarctica (Le Pichon, 1968)orre- crest is about directed from E to W, as small circles moving from latitudes 28° to 18°, when the Moon moves from maximum to min- imum declinations (the same happens at negative latitudes for the ⁎ Corresponding authors. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (F. Riguzzi), [email protected] opposite bulge), thus suggesting a role of rotational and tidal drag (C. Doglioni). effects (Bostrom, 2000; Crespi et al., 2007). 0040-1951/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2009.06.012 Please cite this article as: Riguzzi, F., et al., Can Earth's rotation and tidal despinning drive plate tectonics? Tectonophysics (2009), doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2009.06.012 ARTICLE IN PRESS 2 F. Riguzzi et al. / Tectonophysics xxx (2009) xxx–xxx Fig. 1. Earth's cross section and related location map (red line, above), modified after Thybo (2006). Absolute shear wave velocity model includes a pronounced, global Low Velocity Zone (LVZ) at the top of the asthenosphere, which is strongest underneath the oceans, but also clearly identifiable underneath the continents. This level is here inferred as the main decoupling zone at the base of the lithosphere, possibly having an internal sub-layer with ultra-low viscosity, much lower than the average asthenosphere. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.) Tectonic features on Earth show profound asymmetries as a Another critical issue is the dip of the subduction zones. The slab function of their geographic polarity. A long list of signatures marks dip has been the topic of a number of researches (e.g., Jarrard, 1986). the distinction between orogens and related subduction zones and rift During the seventies it was noticed that the western Pacific slabs are zones (Zhang and Tanimoto, 1993; Doglioni et al., 2003). These steeper than the eastern side (Isacks and Barazangi, 1977). This asym- differences can be observed moving along the undulated flow of plate metry has been used (Nelson and Temple, 1972; Dickinson, 1978; motions (Crespi et al., 2007; Doglioni et al., 2007) and diminish if east- Uyeda and Kanamori, 1979; Doglioni, 1990; 1993) to infer a mantle versus west-facing structures are compared. The orogens associated flow directed toward the “east”,confirming the notion of the with E- or NE-directed slabs (orogens of type A) are more elevated “westerly” drift of the lithosphere (Le Pichon, 1968; Bostrom, 1971; (N1000 m) with respect to what is observed at the steeper W-directed Shaw and Jackson, 1973; Moore, 1973). Recently, Lallemand et al. slabs, where the accretionary prisms (orogens of type B) have much (2005), based on a study where they divided each slab into a shal- lower average elevation (−1250 m), as shown in Fig. 3. The rocks lower part (b125 km) and a deeper segment (N125 km), suggested outcropping along the orogens related to the E- or NE-directed sub- that the dip difference between western- and eastern-directed sub- duction zones represent the entire crust and upper mantle section, duction zones is not statistically significant, but they recognized that whereas at the W-directed slab, the accretionary prisms are most- the slabs beneath the oceanic crust are steeper than beneath the ly composed by sedimentary and upper-crust rocks. Therefore oro- continents. This slope difference confirms the presence of a large gens of type A have much deeper decoupling planes with respect asymmetry in the Pacific, where the less steep slabs with continental to orogens of type B. The foredeep has lower subsidence rates lithosphere lie along the eastern margin, whereas the generally (b0.2 mm/yr) along E- or NE-directed subduction zones with respect steeper slabs (apart Japan) with oceanic lithosphere in the overriding to the W-directed ones, where the foredeep-trench subsidence is plate, prevail along the western Pacific margins. much faster (N1 mm/yr). Along the E- or NE-directed subduction The westward drift of the lithosphere implies a relative “eastward” zones, the subduction hinge moves toward the upper plate, whereas it mantle flow (e.g. Panza et al., 2007), the decoupling taking place in the generally moves away from the upper plate along the W-directed asthenosphere whose top, generally, is deeper than 100 km. Therefore subduction zones. This asymmetric behavior implies, on average, a the shallow part of the slab may not show any relevant dip difference. three times faster lithospheric recycling into the mantle along Cruciani et al. (2005) carefully measured the slab dip and they W-directed subduction zones and provides evidence for polarized demonstrated that the slab age is not correlated to the dip of the slab, mantle convection. Gravity, heat flow anomalies, seismicity, etc. also contrary to earlier observations (e.g., Wortel, 1984). The analysis of support these differences, and along rift zones, the eastern flank is, on Cruciani et al. (2005) is deliberately limited to the uppermost 250 km average, 100–300 m shallower than the western flank (Fig.
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