Tectonophysics – Cenozoic uplift of South Western Australia as constrained by river profiles

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Barnett-Moore, N., Flament, N., Heine, C., Butterworth, N., & Müller, R. D. (2014). Cenozoic uplift of south Western Australia as constrained by river profiles. Tectonophysics, 622, 186-197. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2014.03.010. Cenozoic uplift of south Western Australia as constrained by river profiles

Geophysics – Mapping crustal thickness using marine gravity data: Methods and uncertainties

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Bai, Y., Williams, S. E., Müller, R. D., Liu, Z., & Hosseinpour, M. (2014). Mapping crustal thickness using marine gravity data: Methods and uncertainties. Geophysics, 79(2), G27-G36. doi: 10.1190/GEO2013-0270. Mapping crustal thickness using marine gravity data: Methods and uncertainties Download supplementary material

EarthByte publicity for Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic paper

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Summary FigureCongratulations to EarthByte’s Sascha Brune and Christian Heine (now at Shell in The Hague) who made it to the Sydney Uni front page with a media piece on “How the world missed out on a Saharan Atlantic ocean”, attracted international media attention and were chosen as a “Research Focus” in the current volume of Geology for their paper: Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic: Why there is no Saharan Atlantic Ocean. Well done! … Read more…

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Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems – Community infrastructure and repository for marine magnetic identifications

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magnetic_picks_globeMagnetic anomaly identifications form the primary data set from which the age of the oceanic lithosphere can be determined, a critical component of reconstructing the seafloor spreading history of ocean basins. This data is now available as part of an open source, community-driven online repository that contains quality-checked magnetic anomaly picks, organised by ocean basin and publication source.

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Solid Earth – Pacific plate slab pull and intraplate deformation in the early Cenozoic

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Butterworth, N. P., Müller, R. D., Quevedo, L., O’Connor, J. M., Hoernle, K., & Morra, G. (2014). Pacific Plate slab pull and intraplate deformation in the early Cenozoic. Solid Earth, 5(2). doi: 10.5194/sed-6-1-2014. Pacific Plate slab pull and intraplate deformation in the early Cenozoic

Geoscientific Model Development – A suite of early Eocene (~55 Ma) climate model boundary conditions

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Herold_etal_2014_BIOME4

Herold, N., Buzan, J., Seton, M., Goldner, A., Green, J. A. M., Müller, R. D., Markwick, P., & Huber, M. (2014). A suite of early Eocene (~ 55 Ma) climate model boundary conditions. Geoscientific Model Development, 7(5), 2077-2090. doi: 10.5194/gmd-7-2077-2014.

A suite of early Eocene (~ 55 Ma) climate model boundary conditions

Supplementary data

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Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Topographic assymetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching

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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, 107-119. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.11.017. Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching … Read more…

Topographic asymmetry of the South Atlantic from global models of mantle flow and lithospheric stretching

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Flament et al EPSL 2014 - FigureCitation
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, 107-119. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2013.11.017.

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. … Read more…

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Scientific Drilling – Exploring new drilling prospects in the Southwest Pacific

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Arculus, R., D’Hondt, S., Exon, N., Foster, C., Gallagher, S. J., Gurnis, M., … & Wallace, L. (2014). Exploring new drilling prospects in the Southwest Pacific. Scientific Drilling, 17, 45-50. doi: 10.5194/sd-17-45-2014. Exploring new drilling prospects in the southwest Pacific

Geology – Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic: Why there is no Saharan Atlantic Ocean

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Heine, C., & Brune, S. (2014). Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic: why there is no Saharan Atlantic Ocean. Geology, 42(3), 211-214. doi:10.1130/G35082.1 107-199. Oblique rifting of the Equatorial Atlantic: why there is no Saharan Atlantic Ocean Access supporting data (ref. 2014073)

Journal of Geodynamics – Geological, tomographic, kinematic and geodynamic constraints on the dynamics of sinking slabs

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Butterworth, N. P., Talsma, A. S., Müller, R. D., Seton, M., Bunge, H. P., Schuberth, B. S. A., … & Heine, C. (2014). Geological, tomographic, kinematic and geodynamic constraints on the dynamics of sinking slabs. Journal of Geodynamics, 73, 1-13. doi: 10.1016/j.jog.2013.10.006. Geological, tomographic, kinematic and geodynamic constraints on the dynamics of sinking slabs Supplementary material

Solid Earth – Full-fit reconstruction of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay

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Hosseinpour, M., Müller, R. D., Williams, S. E., & Whittaker, J. M. (2013). Full-fit reconstruction of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay. Solid Earth, 4(2), 461-479. doi :10.5194/se-4-461-2013. Full-fit reconstruction of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay Supplementary material

The breakup of east Gondwana: assimilating constraints from Cretaceous ocean basins around India into a best-fit tectonic model, Gibbons et al. (2013)

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Citation
Gibbons, A., Whittaker, J. and R. Dietmar Müller, (2013), The break up of East Gondwana: assimilating constraints from Cretaceous ocean basins around India into a best-fit tectonic model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 118, 1-15: doi:10.1002/jgrb.50079

East GondwanaSummary
Published models for the Cretaceous seafloor-spreading history of East Gondwana result in unlikely tectonic scenarios for at least one of the plate boundaries involved and/or violate particular constraints from at least one of the associated ocean basins. We link East Gondwana spreading corridors by integrating magnetic and gravity anomaly data from the Enderby Basin off East Antarctica within a regional plate kinematic framework to identify a conjugate series of east-west-trending magnetic anomalies, M4 to M0 (~126.7–120.4 Ma). … Read more…

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Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, breakup and dispersal, Müller et al. (2013)

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Muller etal Fig1 - Seawater Chemistry Driven by Supercontinental AssemblyCitation
Müller, R. D., Dutkiewicz, A., Seton, M. and Gaina, C. (2013). Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, break-up and dispersal Geology. doi 10.1130/G34405.1.

Summary
Global oceans are known to have alternated between aragonite and calcite seas. These oscillations reflect changes in the Mg/Ca ratio of seawater, which control biomineralisation and the composition of marine carbonates and are thought to be caused by the time dependence of crustal accretion at mid-ocean ridge crests and associated high temperature mid-ocean ridge brine flux. Here we use global ocean basin reconstructions to demonstrate that these fluctuations are instead caused by the gradual growth and destruction of mid-ocean ridges and their relatively cool flanks during long-term tectonic cycles thus linking ocean chemistry to off-ridge low temperature hydrothermal flux. Early Jurassic aragonite seas were a consequence of supercontinent stability and minima in mid-ocean ridge length and basalt alteration. The break-up of Pangaea led to a gradual doubling in ridge length and a 50% increase in hydrothermal flux mainly through an enormous increase in ridge flank area, leading to enhanced alteration of basalt, lowered seawater Mg/Ca ratios and marine hypercalcification from 140 to 35 Ma. … Read more…

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A review of observations and models of dynamic topography

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Citation
Flament, N., Gurnis, M., & Müller, R. D. (2013). A review of observations and models of dynamic topography. Lithosphere, 5(2), 189-210. doi: 10.1130/L245.1

Flament-et-al_fig1Summary
The topography of Earth is primarily controlled by lateral differences in the density structure of the crust and lithosphere. In addition to this isostatic topography, flow in the mantle induces deformation of its surface leading to dynamic topography. This transient deformation evolves over tens of millions of years, occurs at long wavelength, and is relatively small (<2 km) in amplitude. Here, we review the observational constraints and modeling approaches used to understand the amplitude, spatial pattern, and time dependence of dynamic topography. … Read more…

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Opal exploration research recognised as outstanding highlight

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Recent EarthByte research on opal exploration was recognised as an outstanding highlight and reflects the work of many of the group including, Andrew Merdith, Tom Landgrebe, Adriana Dutkiewicz and Patrice Rey. Congratulations to all of the contributors to the project and specifically to John Cannon and Michael Chin, the GPlates developers!

Precambrian Research – The evolution of the 87 Sr/86 Sr of marine carbonates does not constrain continental growth

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Flament, N., Coltice, N., & Rey, P. F. (2013). The evolution of the 87 Sr/86 Sr of marine carbonates does not constrain continental growth. Precambrian Research, 229, 177-188. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2011.10.009. The evolution of the 87 Sr/86 Sr of marine carbonates does not constrain continental growth

Tectonophysics – The Moho: boundary above upper mantle peridotites or lower crustal eclogites? A global review and new interpretations for passive margins

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Mjelde, R., Goncharov, A., & Müller, R. D. (2013). The Moho: boundary above upper mantle peridotites or lower crustal eclogites? A global review and new interpretations for passive margins. Tectonophysics, 609, 636-650. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.03.001. The Moho: boundary above upper mantle peridotites or lower crustal eclogites? A global review and new interpretations for passive margins

EarthByte welcomes Professor Sanzhong Li and PhD student Shan Yu

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EarthByte would like to welcome Professor Sanzhong Li who is visiting for 2 months from the Ocean University of China. We also welcome Shan Yu, a PhD student at the Ocean University of China who will study at EarthByte for 1 year. She will be developing plate reconstructions of the Paleotethys in central China and … Read more…