Craig, TJ and Copley, A (2014) An explanation for the age independence of oceanic elastic thickness estimates from flexural profiles at subduction zones, and implications for continental rheology. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 392. pp. 207-216. ISSN 0012-821X
Abstract
Most properties of oceanic lithosphere are widely observed to be dependent on the age of the plate, such as water depth, heat flow, and seismogenic thickness. However, estimates of the ‘effective elastic thickness' of oceanic lithosphere based on the deflection of the plate as it enters a subduction zone show little correlation with the age of the incoming lithosphere. This paradox requires reconciliation if we are to gain a full understanding of the structure, rheology, and behaviour of oceanic lithosphere. Here, we show that the permanent deformation of the plate due to outer-rise faulting, combined with uncertainties in the yield stress of the lithosphere, the in-plane forces transmitted through subduction zones, and the levels of noise in bathymetric and gravity data, prevents simple elastic plate modelling from accurately capturing the underlying rheological structure of the incoming plate. The age-independent estimates of effective elastic thickness obtained by purely elastic plate modelling are therefore not likely to represent the true rheology of the plate, and hence are not expected to correspond to the plate age. Similar effects may apply to estimates of elastic thickness from continental forelands, with implications for our understanding of continental rheology.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | (c) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). |
Keywords: | elastic thickness; flexure; rheology; oceanic lithosphere |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst of Geophysics and Tectonics (IGT) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 01 Apr 2016 08:09 |
Last Modified: | 12 Feb 2019 13:29 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.027 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.027 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:92254 |