Philip Heron

• Fellow at Durham University

Mid-ocean ridges, transform faults, subduction and continental collisions form theconventional theory of plate tectonics to explain non-rigid behaviour at plate boundaries.However, the theory does not explain directly the processes involved in intraplatedeformation and seismicity. Recently, damage structures in the lithosphere have been linkedto th...

Several mantle convection studies analyzing the effects of supercontinent formation and dispersal show that the genesis of sub-continental plumes results from the formation of subduction zones at the edges of the supercontinent, rather than from the effect of continental thermal insulation or thermo-chemical piles. However, the influence of subduct...

The Eurekan Orogeny, which created much of the high topography of Ellesmere Island and adjacent Greenland, exhibits a crustal architecture linked to intraplate orogenesis in the Cenozoic. It is generally considered that the rotation of Greenland in the Eocene (related to sedimentary basin formation in Baffin Bay) produced compressional intraplate t...

[1] Several processes unfold during the supercontinent cycle, more than one of which might result in an elevation in subcontinental mantle temperatures, thus multiple interpretations of the concept of continental insulation exist. Although a consensus seems to have formed that sub-continental mantle upwellings appear below large continents extensiv...

Continents have a rich tectonic history that have left lasting crustal impressions. In analyzing Central Australian intraplate orogenesis, complex continental features make it difficult to identify the controls of inherited structure. Here the tectonics of two types of inherited structures (e.g., a thermally enhanced or a rheologically strengthened...

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects can be rigid in their teaching structure, creating barriers to education for students with more complex learning needs. As a result, there has been an increased need for compassionate pedagogy and adaptive education practices to provide multi-modal learning experiences—often referred...

A number of widely used colour palettes applied to display critical scientific results not only distort data but are also inaccessible to a proportion of the population. An issue with the rainbow palette (and variants such as “jet”) is that the gradients between the colours are not even. The impact of an uneven colour gradient is that certain colou...

In a scientific context, a suitable color choice is more than simple decoration. Color handling, as part of scientific visualization, is a scientific methodology that is one of the most widely used, given the importance of figures and images in conveying results. Yet, an expert‐level understanding and application of proper scientific coloring is ra...

Supercontinent amalgamation is described by the end-member kinematic processes of introversion - closure of interior oceans; extroversion - closure of exterior oceans; or orthoversion - amalgamation 90° from the centroid of the previous supercontinent. However, supercontinent formations are often ascribed to contradictory mechanisms; for example, P...

The paradigm of plate tectonics holds that ocean plates are rigid during drift and only experience tectonic deformation at subduction zones, but new findings from the Pacific challenge this idea. Geological and geophysical evidence from the Ontong Java, Shatsky, Hess, and Manihiki oceanic plateaux indicates that extensional deformation during plate...

Earth’s continental crust has evolved through a series of supercontinent cycles, resulting in a patchwork of Archean cores surrounded by terranes, fragments, and slivers of younger crustal additions. However, the dispersal (and/or stranding) of continental fragments during breakup is not well understood. Inherited structures from previous tectonic...

Detailed student perspectives on their involvement in prison education are limited in published literature, yet such contributions are invaluable to education practitioners wanting to create inclusive learning environments. This article focuses on the student experience of taking part in a science outreach programme teaching science in prison in En...

The accurate representation of data is essential in science communication. However, colour maps that visually distort data through uneven colour gradients or are unreadable to those with colour-vision deficiency remain prevalent in science. These include, but are not limited to, rainbow-like and red–green colour maps. Here, we present a simple guid...

The status of Pannotia as an Ediacaran supercontinent, or even its mere existence as a coherent large landmass, is controversial. The effect of its hypothesized amalgamation is generally ignored in mantle convection models claiming the transition from Rodinia to Pangaea represents a single supercontinent cycle. We apply three geodynamic scenarios t...

A supercontinent is generally considered to reflect the assembly of all, or most, of the Earth's continental lithosphere. Previous studies have used geological, atmospheric and biogenic ‘geomarkers’ to supplement supercontinent identification. However, there is no formal definition of how much continental material is required to be assembled, or in...

In transform margins, oblique structural inheritance and plate motion vector changes have a direct impact on the margin's morphology and duration of transform activity. We investigate the effect of these two factors using numerical modelling. To simulate oblique inheritance in continental lithosphere, we model an initial rift-transform-rift configu...

Mesozoic‐Cenozoic rifting between Greenland and North America created the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, while leaving preserved continental lithosphere in the Davis Strait, which lies between them. Inherited crustal structures from a Palaeoproterozoic collision have been hypothesized to account for the tectonic features of this rift system. However,...

Mesozoic-Cenozoic rifting between Greenland and Canada created the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, while leaving preserved continental lithosphere in the Davis Strait which lies between them. Inherited crustal structures have been hypothesized to account for the tectonic features of the rift system. However, due to limited imaging of the region, the r...

Mesozoic-Cenozoic rifting between Greenland and North America created the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, while leaving preserved continental lithosphere in the Davis Strait which lies between them. Inherited crustal structures from a Palaeoproterozoic collision have been hypothesized to account for the tectonic features of this rift system. However,...

This review discusses the thermal evolution of the mantle following large-scale tectonic activities such as continental collision and continental rifting. About 300 myr ago, continental material amalgamated through the large-scale subduction of oceanic seafloor, marking the termination of one or more oceanic basins (e.g. Wilson cycles) and the form...

Mantle lithosphere heterogeneities are well documented, are ubiquitous, and have often been thought to control lithosphere-scale deformation. Here, we explore the influence of deep scarring in crustal deformation in three dimensions by considering the Ouachita orogeny in the southeastern United States, an example of a continental collision where ma...

The Mesozoic-Cenozoic separation of Greenland and North America produced the small oceanic basins of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay, which are connected via the Davis Strait, a region mostly comprised of continental lithosphere. The preservation of continental crust in this region, the overall large-scale 'dog-leg' geometry, widespread magmatism a...

This review of the role of the mantle lithosphere in plate tectonic processes collates a wide range of recent studies from seismology and numerical modelling. A continually growing catalogue of deep geophysical imaging has illuminated the mantle lithosphere and generated new interpretations of how the lithosphere evolves. We review current ideas ab...

Crustal inheritance is often considered important in the tectonic evolution of the Wilson Cycle. However, the role of the mantle lithosphere is usually overlooked due to its difficulty to image and uncertainty in rheological make-up. Recently, increased resolution in lithosphere imaging has shown potential scarring in continental mantle lithosphere...

Supplementary Figures 1-7, Supplementary Tables 1 & 2 and Supplementary References.

Planetary surface mobility depends on lithospheric stresses arising from the mantle's convective vigor. Using a model of thermochemical convection featuring force-balanced plates we examine the effect on surface mobility of different fractions of compositionally dense mantle material. Specifically, we introduce a uniform thickness compositionally e...

Geophysical evidence suggests the present day thermal field of the Earth is characterised by anomalously warm material beneath the African and Pacific plates. Continental insulation during the Mesozoic offers a possible explanation for why the mantle below the African plate, a former site of continental aggregation, is warmer than expected. We inve...

Continental insulation during the Mesozoic offers an explanation as to why the mantle below the African plate, a former site of continental aggregation, is hotter than normal. Numerical modeling studies have shown that the formation of a supercontinent over a mantle downwelling can initiate a reorganization of mantle convection planform, resulting...

Evidence indicating that the mantle below Pangea was characterized by elevated temperatures supports the widely held view that a supercontinent insulates the underlying mantle. Implementing a D model of mantle convection featuring distinct oceanic and continental plates, we explore different effects of supercontinent formation on mantle evolution....

In this study we examine the interaction of tectonic and volcanically-generated stress fields, and their combined effect on patterns of volcanotectonic (VT) seismicity, by calculating Coulomb stress changes on local faults induced by a constant dike inflation event in a background stress field of systematically varying magnitude and orientation. We...

There is substantial evidence for mechanical coupling between crustal faults and magmatic systems. Large earthquakes release accumulated stress onto a nearby magmatic system, triggering an eruption. Conversely, processes leading to physical changes in a magmatic system (e.g., injection or withdrawal of magma) may load stresses onto nearby faults, t...

Large igneous provinces (LIPs) have been linked to both surface and deep mantle processes. During the formation, tenure and break-up of the supercontinent Pangaea, there is an increase in emplacement events for both continental and oceanic LIPs. There is currently no clear consensus on the origin of LIPs, but a hypothesis relates their formation to...