Full description
This data collection is associated with the publication: Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Williams, S., Seton, M., Skogseid, J., Heine, C., & Müller, R. D. (2014). Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 387(0), 107-119. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2013.11.017
Publication Abstract
The relief of the South Atlantic is characterized by elevated passive continental margins along southern Africa and eastern Brazil, and by the bathymetric asymmetry of the southern oceanic basin where the western flank is much deeper than the eastern flank. We investigate the origin of these topographic features in the present and over time since the Jurassic with a model of global mantle flow and lithospheric deformation. The model progressively assimilates plate kinematics, plate boundaries and lithospheric age derived from global tectonic reconstructions with deforming plates, and predicts the evolution of mantle temperature, continental crustal thickness, long-wavelength dynamic topography, and isostatic topography. Mantle viscosity and the kinematics of the opening of the South Atlantic are adjustable parameters in thirteen model cases. Model predictions are compared to observables both for the present-day and in the past. Present-day predictions are compared to topography, mantle tomography, and an estimate of residual topography. Predictions for the past are compared to tectonic subsidence from backstripped borehole data along the South American passive margin, and to dynamic uplift as constrained by thermochronology in southern Africa. Comparison between model predictions and observations suggests that the first-order features of the topography of the South Atlantic are due to long-wavelength dynamic topography, rather than to asthenospheric processes. The uplift of southern Africa is best reproduced with a lower mantle that is at least 40 times more viscous than the upper mantle.
Authors and Institutions
Nicholas Flament - EarthByte Research Group, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Australia. ORCID: 0000-0002-3237-0757
Michael Gurnis - Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA
Simon E. Williams - EarthByte Research Group, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Australia. ORCID: 0000-0003-4670-8883
Maria Seton - EarthByte Research Group, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Australia. ORCID: 0000-0001-8541-1367
Jakob Skogseid - Statoil ASA, Norway
Christian Heine - EarthByte Research Group, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Australia
R. Dietmar Müller - EarthByte Research Group, School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Australia. ORCID: 0000-0002-3334-5764
Overview of Resources Contained
This collection comprises gridded data of a dynamic topography model (model HH2 from Flament et al. (2014)) in both a mantle and a plate reference frame for the past 200 Ma at approximately 10 million year intervals.
List of Resources
Note: For details on the files included in this data collection, see “Description_of_Resources.txt”.
Note: For information on file formats and what programs to use to interact with various file formats, see “File_Formats_and_Recommended_Programs.txt”.
- Dynamic topography in a mantle reference frame (.nc, .txt, .kmz, .tif, .jpg, total 696.2 MB)
- Dynamic topography in plate reference frame (.nc, .txt, .kmz, .tif, .jpg, total 588.9 MB)
The grids can also be visualised interactively online using the GPlates Web Portal.
For more information on this data collection, and links to other datasets from the EarthByte Research Group please visit EarthByte
For more information about using GPlates, including tutorials and a user manual please visit GPlates or EarthByte
Data time period:
Jurassic to present day (200–0 Ma)
Spatial Coverage And Location
text: Global
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- DOI : 10.4227/11/5587A8381832D
