Nowhere on the present-day Earth can the transition from a continental to an oceanic rift be observed and studied better than in the Red Sea region, where three rifts in different stages of evolution meet in a triple point located in the Afar region. A thermal and/or compositional mantle plume may have risen from the upper mantle below Afar already at *30 Ma, and may have triggered, at least in...

The respective tectonic effects of back arc spreading and continental collision in Asia are considered either as two independent processes or as closely interrelated. Extrusion tectonics assumes that the opening of the South China Sea and the left-lateral motion along the Red River fault are geometrically linked in a pull-apart manner. This model is not accepted by several workers because the s...

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] Magma production at mid-ocean ridges is driven by seafloor spreading and decompression melting of the upper mantle. In the special case of Iceland, mantle melting may have been amplified by ice sheet retreat during the last deglaciation, yielding anomalously high rates of subaerial volcanism. For the remainder of the global mid-ocean ridge system, the ocean may play an analogous role, with ...

Introduction Hydrothermal systems and their associated metal deposits have been studied at oceanic spreading centers since the late 1970s when they were first discovered. More recently, those studies have been extended to subduction zone hydrothermal systems including active volcanic arcs and back-arc environments. Oceanic spreading centers compose a global ridge system where new ocean crust is...