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Science 6 March 1998:
Vol. 279. no. 5356, pp. 1499 - 1504
DOI: 10.1126/science.279.5356.1499
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Research Articles

Cretaceous Vertical Motion of Australia and the AustralianAntarctic Discordance

Michael Gurnis, R. Dietmar Müller, Louis Moresi

A three-dimensional model of mantle convection in which the known history of plate tectonics is imposed predicts the anomalous Cretaceous vertical motion of Australia and the present-day distinctive geochemistry and geophysics of the Australian-Antarctic Discordance. The dynamic models infer that a subducted slab associated with the long-lived Gondwanaland-Pacific converging margin passed beneath Australia during the Cretaceous, partially stagnated in the mantle transition zone, and is presently being drawn up by the Southeast Indian Ridge.

M. Gurnis is at the Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. E-mail: gurnis{at}caltech.edu. R. D. Müller is in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. E-mail: dietmar{at}es.su.oz.au. L. Moresi is at the Australian Geodynamics Cooperative Research Centre, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Exploration and Mining, Nedlands, WA 6009 Australia. E-mail: louis{at}ned.dem.csiro.au

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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