The surface mechanical boundary conditions for most of our models are shear stress free (free slip), such that plate velocities are driven self-consistently by density contrasts within the mantle (Ricard and Vigny, 1989). The lithosphere in our models is defined rheologically as a relatively stiff layer from the surface to 100 km depth that is “broken” by weak zones of reduced viscosity, as in ...

The errors in plate motion azimuths inferred from shear wave splitting beneath any one tectonic plate are shown to be correlated with the errors of other azimuths from the same plate. To account for these correlations, we adopt a two-tier analysis: First, find the pole of rotation and confidence limits for each plate individually. Second, solve for the best fit to these poles while constraining...

GeoFEM is a parallel FEM code to analyze solid earth. This report describes large-scaled structural analysis features of the code. One of the purposes for GeoFEM/Tiger version consists in 100 million degree of freedoms (DOF) analysis by parallelized FEM. Here, we discuss the problem to be solved by GeoFEM, the method to enable such a large-scaled structural analysis and its visibility. GeoFEM a...

[1] Africa-North America-Eurasia plate circuit rotations, combined with Red Sea rotations and new estimates of crustal shortening in Iran define the Cenozoic history of the Neotethyan ocean between Arabia and Eurasia. The new constraints indicate that Arabia-Eurasia convergence has been fairly constant at 2 to 3 cm/yr since 56 Ma with slowing of Africa-Eurasia motion to <1 cm/yr near 25 Ma, coe...

[1] Large topographic belts along convergent margins have been recognized with the ability to slowdown the kinematics of subduction over geologically short time periods (i.e., few Myr), because their associated gravitational spreading provides significant resistive force within the framework of plate tectonics. The record of past and present-day plate kinematics provides important constraints o...

In this paper, the effect of anisotropy on the free vibration of laminated rectangular plate supporting a localized patch mass is investigated. The two variable refined plate theory is applied to define the third order displacement field of a composite rectangular plate. The plate is considered to have simply supported boundaries. The equations of motion for rectangular plate are obtained by ca...

the effect of a distributed patch mass on the natural frequency of vibration of a laminated rectangular plate with simply supported boundaries is investigated. the third order displacement field of a composite laminated rectangular plate is defined using the two variable refined plate theory. equations of motion of the plate are obtained with the help of calculus of variation. parametric study ...