Two-stage model of African absolute motion during the last 30 million years

Abstract

The absolute motion of Africa (relative to the hotspots) for the past 30 My is modeled with two Euler vectors, with a change occurring at 6 Ma. Because of the high sensitivity of African absolute motions to errors in the absolute motions of the North America and Pacific plates, both the pre-6 Ma and post-6 Ma African absolute motions are determined simultaneously with North America and Pacific absolute motions for various epochs. Geologic data from the northern Atlantic and hotspot tracks from the African plate are used to augment previous data sets for the North America and Pacific plates. The difference between the pre-6 Ma and post-6 Ma absolute plate motions may be represented as a counterclockwise rotation about a pole at 48 °S, 84 °E, with angular velocity 0.085 °/My. This change is supported by geologic evidence along a large portion of the African plate boundary, including the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden spreading systems, the Alpine deformation zone, and the central and southern mid-Atlantic Ridge. Although the change is modeled as one abrupt transition at 6 Ma, it was most likely a gradual change spanning the period 8-4 Ma. As a likely mechanism for the change, we favor strong asthenospheric return flow from the Afar hotspot towards the southwest; this could produce the uniform southwesterly shift in absolute motion which we have inferred as well as provide a mechanism for the opening of the East African Rift. Comparing the absolute motions of the North America and Pacific plates with earlier estimates, the pole positions are revised by up to 5° and the angular velocities are decreased by 10–20%.