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Published June 2016 | Published
Journal Article Open

The importance of temporal stress variation and dynamic disequilibrium for the initiation of plate tectonics

Abstract

We use 1-D thermal history models and 3-D numerical experiments to study the impact of dynamic thermal disequilibrium and large temporal variations of normal and shear stresses on the initiation of plate tectonics. Previous models that explored plate tectonics initiation from a steady state, single plate mode of convection concluded that normal stresses govern the initiation of plate tectonics, which based on our 1-D model leads to plate yielding being more likely with increasing interior heat and planet mass for a depth-dependent Byerlee yield stress. Using 3-D spherical shell mantle convection models in an episodic regime allows us to explore larger temporal stress variations than can be addressed by considering plate failure from a steady state stagnant lid configuration. The episodic models show that an increase in convective mantle shear stress at the lithospheric base initiates plate failure, which leads with our 1-D model to plate yielding being less likely with increasing interior heat and planet mass. In this out-of-equilibrium and strongly time-dependent stress scenario, the onset of lithospheric overturn events cannot be explained by boundary layer thickening and normal stresses alone. Our results indicate that in order to understand the initiation of plate tectonics, one should consider the temporal variation of stresses and dynamic disequilibrium.

Additional Information

© 2016 American Geophysical Union. Received 5 JAN 2016; Accepted 29 APR 2016; Accepted article online 11 MAY 2016; Published online 4 JUN 2016; Corrected 20 JUN 2016. This work was supported by a fellowship from the Simons Foundation (award 338555, VS) and by the NSF grant EAR-0944156 (A.L. and T.H.). Simulation data are available upon request. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and their support.

Errata

In the originally published version of this article, there was one error in Table 1 and one error in Table 2. In Table 1, in the "Units" column, "Wkg−3" has been changed to "Wkg−1." In Table 2, text that was included as a separate footnote has now been included as part of the Table caption. These errors have since been corrected and this version may be considered the authoritative version of record.

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Published - Stamenkovi-_et_al-2016-Journal_of_Geophysical_Research__Planets.pdf

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Additional details

Created:
August 22, 2023
Modified:
October 20, 2023