Lithospheric stress, deformation, and tectonic cycles: the disruption of Pangaea and the closure of Tethys

Abstract

Abstract Intra-plate stress is governed on a global scale by plate boundary configuration and the disposition of continents. When continents are assembled into Pangaea-type masses, they are in deviatoric tension and predisposed to rifting and splitting along weak zones and where tension is locally enhanced by compensated uplifts. When continents are dispersed, they are, mainly, in deviatoric compression when local and minor thrusting and strike-slip faulting occur. Cyclic assembly, disruption, separation and reassembly of continental fragments causes a globally episodic, perhaps even periodic, repetition and synchroneity of tectonic events, alkaline and mafic magmatism and sea-level changes.