[1] Understanding the formation mechanisms of cratonic basins provides an examination of the rheological, compositional and thermal properties of continental cratons. However, these mechanisms are poorly understood because there are few currently active cratonic basins. One cratonic basin thought to be active is the Congo basin located in equatorial Africa. The Congo basin is coincident with a ...

[1] Broadband data from the Meso-America Subduction Experiment (MASE) line in central Mexico were used to image the subducted Cocos plate and the overriding continental lithosphere beneath central Mexico using a generalized radon transform based migration. Our images provide insight into the process of subducting relatively young oceanic lithosphere and its complex geometry beneath continental ...

An analysis is made of viscoelastic lithosphere/asthenosphere coupling in the time-dependent redistribution of stress along plate boundaries or other seismic lineaments following great earthquakes. The study is based on a generalization by Rice of Elsasser's model of stress-diffusion, i which general elastic plane stress deformations are allowed in lithospheric plates which are coupled in an el...

Extrapolation of the age distribution of oceanic lithosphere has played a significant role in assessments of variations in global mean spreading rate, global mean ocean basin depth, and implications for global mean sea level. Subduction has already removed 50% of oceanic lithosphere younger than 55.7Ma, making some level of extrapolation a necessary part of global plate reconstructions. An area...

[1] The Mojave Neovolcanic Province (MNVP), located in the Mojave block of southern California, comprises late Miocene to Quaternary small-volume basaltic centers. Geochemistry indicates an asthenospheric source for the MNVP beginning in the late Miocene, but no physical evidence of missing mantle lithosphere has been presented. We utilize receiver functions and ambient noise tomography to imag...

In Northeast Japan, it remains a puzzle to reconcile the mismatch between long-term (geological) uplift and lateinterseismic and coseismic subsidence associated with the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. To explain this mismatch between different periods, we modeled the entire megathrust earthquake cycle in the Northeast Japan arc using a simple dislocation model with a two-layered lithosphere–asthenosph...

In Africa volumetrically minor, mid-plate volcanic rocks of Cenozoic age are concentrated in areas affected by Pan-African (500 _+ 150 Ma) crustal reactivation, and are virtually absent from cratonic areas. We interpret this as indicating that Pan-African areas are underlain by fertile lithospheric mantle and cratons by depleted lithospheric mantle, and propose a model to explain both the distr...

The most stable flow pattern responsible for a ridge transform fault system is studied based on a mantle model of a layered viscous fluid. If the How beneath the ridge is caused by a passive convection, the stable flow on the earth's urface is most likely perpendicular to the ridge axis only for components of small wavelength, less than about 5.5 times of the thickness of the lithosphere, and o...

Article history: Lithospheric extension is a f Received 19 May 2008 Accepted 22 July 2008 Available online 26 July 2008