Cretaceous vertical motion of australia and the australian- antarctic discordance
A three-dimensional model of mantle convection in which the known history of plate tectonics is imposed predicts the anomalous Cretaceous vertical motion of Australia and the present-day distinctive geochemistry and geophysics of the Australian-Antarctic Discordance. The dynamic models infer that a subducted slab associated with the long-lived Gondwanaland-Pacific converging margin passed beneath Australia during the Cretaceous, partially stagnated in the mantle transition zone, and is presently being drawn up by the Southeast Indian Ridge.
Gurnis
M
M. Gurnis is at the Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. E-mail: gurnis@caltech.edu. R. D. Muller is in the Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Austra.
Muller
RD
Moresi
L