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Science 4 March 1994:
Vol. 263. no. 5151, pp. 1246 - 1254
DOI: 10.1126/science.263.5151.1246
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Articles

Paleomagnetic Tests of Pacific Plate Reconstructions and Implications for Motion Between Hotspots

Gary D. Acton 1 and Richard G. Gordon 2

1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1116, USA.
2 Laboratoire de Géodynamique Sous-Marine, B.P. 48, 06230 Villefranche sur Mer, France

The plate-motion circuit through the South Pacific and Antarctica is shown to fail paleomagnetic tests of consistency. These failures imply that reconstructions of Pacific basin plates relative to surrounding plates inferred from this circuit are systematically in error and that estimates of motion between hotspots inferred from this circuit are probably too large. Therefore, the motions between hotspots remain poorly known and may be much smaller than previously estimated.


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