W. Spakman

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• dr.
• Professor Emeritus at Utrecht University

After >500 Myr of absence, major Northern Hemisphere glaciations appeared during the Plio-Pleistocene, with Greenland leading other northern areas. Here we propose that three major solid-Earth processes underpinned build-up of the Greenland ice-sheet. First, a mantle-plume pulse, responsible for the North Atlantic Igneous Province at ~60 Ma, region...

We investigate the influence of absolute plate motion on regional 3-D evolution of subduction using numerical thermo-mechanical modeling. Building on our previous work (Chertova et al. 2014), we explore the potential impact of four different absolute plate motion frames on subduction evolution in the western Mediterranean region during the last 35M...

The Caribbean oceanic crust was formed west of the North and South American continents, probably from Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous time. Its subsequent evolution has resulted from a complex tectonic history governed by the interplay of the North American, South American and (Paleo-)Pacific plates. During its entire tectonic evolution, the...

No consensus exists on the tectonic evolution of the western Mediterranean since ~35 Ma. Three disparate tectonic evolution scenarios are identified, each portraying slab rollback as the driving mechanism but with rollback starting from strongly different subduction geometries. As a critical test for the validity of each tectonic scenario we employ...

The western Mediterranean recorded subduction rollback, slab segmentation and separation. Here we address the questions of what caused Oligocene rollback initiation, and how its subsequent evolution split up an originally coherent fore arc into circum-southwest Mediterranean segments. We kinematically reconstruct western Mediterranean geology from...

Coupled crust-mantle response to slab tearing, bending and rollback 2 along the Dinaride-Hellenide orogen 3 4 Figures S1 and S2 show the crustal cross sections in Figures 13a-d and the MOHO (Figure S1) 5 and the mantle velocity structure (Figure S2) used to constrain the geometry of the crust-6 mantle boundary and the lithospheric slabs, respective...

Seismic P-wave tomography

Cross sections across the Dinaric-Hellenic orogen including Moho references

Cross sections across the Dinaric-Hellenic orogen including Moho references

Resolution test of P-wave tomography

Cross sections of P-wave tomography (model UU‐PO7 of Hall & Spakman, 2015) across the the Dinaric-Hellenic orogen

The rheology of Earth’s lower mantle plays a crucial role in shaping mantle convection and consequently in planetary evolution but is still under debate1. Propositions differ on the rheology of ferropericlase, whether it is stronger2 or weaker than bridgmanite1,3,4, the majority phase, but especially also on the mechanism by which bridgmanite defor...

Plate tectonics is primarily driven by the constant gravitational pull of slabs where oceanic lithosphere sinks into the mantle at subduction zones. Under stable plate boundary configurations, changes in plate motion are then thought to occur gradually. Surprisingly, recent high-resolution Indian plate reconstructions revealed rapid (2–3 Million-ye...

Numerical models of Earth's mantle dynamics that aim to comply with a variety of surface observations and/or modern mantle structure, still predict a widely varying vigour of mantle flow which governs the long-term evolution of mantle structure and mixing. A yet unexplored source of intrinsic information on mantle flow characteristics are the geolo...

Plate tectonics is primarily driven by the constant gravitational pull of slabs where dense oceanic lithosphere sinks into the mantle at subduction zones. Under stable plate boundary configurations, changes in plate motion are then thought to occur gradually. Surprisingly, recent high-resolution Indian plate reconstructions revealed rapid (2-3 Ma)...

The dynamics of slab detachment and associated geological fingerprints have been inferred from various numerical and analogue models. These invariably use a setup with slab-pull-driven convergence in which a slab detaches below a mantle-stationary trench after the arrest of plate convergence due to arrival of continental lithosphere. In contrast, g...

This is a movie illustrating the kinematic reconstruction of the Mediterranean realm, accompanying a publication by van Hinsbergen et al. 2019: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2019.07.009

The dynamics of slab detachment and associated geological fingerprints are inferred from numerical and analogue models that use a setup with slab-pull-driven convergence in which a slab detaches following the arrest of convergence following continent arrival in a mantle-stationary trench. In contrast, geological reconstructions show that post-detac...

Geodetically estimated surface motions contain contributions to crustal deformation from coupled geodynamic processes active at all spatial scales and constitute key data for lithosphere dynamics research. Data interpretation methods should therefore account for the full range of possible processes, otherwise risking misinterpretation of data signa...

Plate reconstructions of the Panthalassa Ocean typically portray a simple system of diverging plates surrounded by active margins, yet geological and seismic tomographic records demonstrate that intra‐oceanic subduction existed. Here, we reconstruct the plate tectonic evolution of the pre‐Cretaceous intra‐oceanic Oku‐Niikappu island arc, remnants o...

The formation of a global network of plate boundaries surrounding a mosaic of lithospheric fragments was a key step in the emergence of Earth’s plate tectonics. So far, propositions for plate boundary formation are regional in nature but how plate boundaries are being created over 1000s of km in short periods of geological time remains elusive. Her...

The Panthalassa Ocean, which surrounded the late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic Pangea supercontinent, was underlain by multiple tectonic plates that have since been lost to subduction. In this study, we develop an approach to reconstruct plate motions of this subducted lithosphere utilizing paleomagnetic data from accreted Ocean Plate Stratigraphy (OPS)...

The formation of a global network of plate boundaries surrounding a mosaic of lithospheric fragments was a key step in the emergence of Earth’s plate tectonics. So far, propositions for plate boundary formation are regional in nature but how plate boundaries are being created over 1000s of km in short periods of geological time remains elusive. Her...

During evolution of the South Sandwich subduction zone, which has consumed South American Plate oceanic lithosphere, somehow continental crust of both the South American and Antarctic plates have become incorporated into its upper plate. Continental fragments of both plates are currently separated by small oceanic basins in the upper plate above th...

The Dinarides fold-thrust belt on the Balkan Peninsula resulted from convergence between the Adriatic and Eurasian plates since Mid-Jurassic times. Under the Dinarides, S-wave receiver functions, P-wave tomographic models, and shear-wave splitting data show anomalously thin lithosphere overlying a short down-flexed slab geometry. This geometry sugg...

The basins and orogens of the Mediterranean region ultimately result from the opening of oceans during the early break-up of Pangea since the Triassic, and their subsequent destruction by subduction accommodating convergence between the African and Eurasian Plates since the Jurassic. The region has been the cradle for the development of geodynamic...

Plain Language Summary During subduction, downgoing plate lithosphere (“slab”) releases water to the overlying mantle causing so‐called “arc volcanism.” A puzzling class of “postsubduction” arc magmatism bears geochemical signatures of subduction but occurs in a setting without subduction. Here we show that this magmatism is the result of remelting...

The Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.97–5.33 Ma) was caused by the closure of the Atlantic‐Mediterranean gateways that cut through the Gibraltar orogenic system. The geodynamic drivers underlying gateway closure and re‐opening are still debated. Here, we interrogate the gateway successions to find the imprints of surface deformation, infer the timing a...

The Geodynamic World Builder is an open-source code library intended to set up initial conditions for computational geodynamic models in both Cartesian and spherical geometries. The inputs for the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON)-style parameter file are not mathematical but rather a structured nested list describing tectonic features, e.g., a con...

Paleotectonic maps for the Mediterranean region

GPlates shape and rotation files for the Mediterranean region

We integrate structural, geophysical, and geodetic studies showing that the Dinarides‐Hellenides orogen along the Adria‐Europe plate boundary in the Western Balkan peninsula has experienced clockwise oroclinal bending since Eocene‐Oligocene time. Rotation of the Hellenic segment of this orogen has accelerated since the middle Miocene and is associa...

We integrate structural, geophysical, and geodetic studies showing that the Dinarides‐Hellenides orogen along the Adria‐Europe plate boundary in the Western Balkan peninsula has experienced clockwise oroclinal bending since Eocene‐Oligocene time. Rotation of the Hellenic segment of this orogen has accelerated since the middle Miocene and is associa...

We aim to predict gravity fields as a constraint for geodynamical modelling. This requires using density models for the whole crust and mantle. Gravity is calculated using a direct integration method in the state-of-the-art finite element code ASPECT.

Many problems in geodynamic modelling result in a non-linear Stokes problem in which the viscosity depends on the strain rate and pressure (in addition to other variables). After discretization, the resulting non-linear system is most commonly solved using a Picard fixed-point iteration. However, it is well understood that Newton’s method – when au...

Key in understanding the geodynamics governing subduction and orogeny is reconstructing the paleogeography of 'Greater India', the Indian plate lithosphere that subducted since Tethyan Himalayan continental collision with Asia. Here, we discuss this reconstruction from paleogeographic, kinematic, and geodynamic perspectives and isolate the evolutio...

TheGeodynamic World Builder is an open source code library intended to set up initial conditions for computational geodynamic models in both Cartesian and Spherical geometries. The inputs for the JSON-style parameter file are not mathematical, but rather a structured nested list describing tectonic features, e.g. a continental, an oceanic or a subd...

Global tectonic reconstructions of pre-Cenozoic plate motions rely primarily on paleomagnetic and geological data from the continents, and uncertainties increase significantly with deepening geological time. In attempting to improve such deep-time plate kinematic reconstructions, restoring lost oceanic plates through the use of geological and seism...

Supporting Information S1

Supporting Information S1

Tectonic plates subducting at trenches having strikes oblique to the absolute subducting plate motion undergo trench-parallel slab motion through the mantle, recently defined as a form of “slab dragging.” We investigate here long-term slab-dragging components of the Tonga-Kermadec subduction system driven by absolute Pacific plate motion. To this e...

SE Asia comprises a heterogeneous assemblage of fragments derived from Cathaysia (Eurasia) in the north and Gondwana in the south, separated by suture zones representing closed former ocean basins. The western part of the region comprises Sundaland, which was formed by Late Permian–Triassic amalgamation of continental and arc fragments now found in...

The impact of remotely forced mantle flow on regional subduction evolution is largely unexplored. Here we investigate this by means of 3D thermo-mechanical numerical modeling using a regional modeling domain. We start with simplified models consisting of a 600 km (or 1400 km) wide subducting plate surrounded by other plates. Mantle inflow of ∼3 cm/...

In the version of this Article originally published, the author list and journal name were incorrect in ref. 23, the reference should have read: ‘Neres, M. et al. Lithospheric deformation in the Africa–Iberia plate boundary: improved neotectonic modeling testing a basal‐driven Alboran plate. J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth 121, 6566–6596 (2016).’ This...

The geological record of the eastern Mediterranean region holds record of the subsequent closure of the Paleotethyan and Neotethyan oceanic realm and microcontinents therein due to subduction since the Triassic. Kinematic restorations suggest that at least four subduction zones were responsible for this consumption, two consuming the Paleotethys, a...

ASPECT (Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth's ConvecTion) is a massively parallel finite element code originally designed for modeling thermal convection in the mantle with a Newtonian rheology. The code is characterized by modern numerical methods, high-performance parallelism and extensibility. This last characteristic is illustrated in this wo...

The recent tectonic evolution of the western Mediterranean region is enigmatic. The causes for the closure of the Moroccan marine gateway prior to the Messinian salinity crisis, for the ongoing shortening of the Moroccan Rif and for the origin of the seismogenic Trans-Alboran shear zone and eastern Betics extension are unclear. These puzzling tecto...

Across the entire mantle we interpret 94 positive seismic wave-speed anomalies as subducted lithosphere and associate these slabs with their geological record. We document this as the Atlas of the Underworld, also accessible online at www.atlas-of-the-underworld.org, a compilation comprising subduction systems active in the past ~300 Myr. Deeper sl...

In their recent paper, Barnett-Moore et al. [2016] reflect on current models of Iberian plate motion in the Jurassic and Cretaceous as well as ongoing debates on the reliability of the various types of kinematic data that form independent constraints on Iberia's motion relative to Eurasia. They question the validity of various marine geophysical, s...

Subducting slabs commonly acquire complex geometries from the migration of subduction trenches, slab–mantle interaction, slab tearing, and collision of slabs at depth. Although it is possible to construct three-dimensional models of subducted slabs using earthquake hypocenter locations and tomographic models, it is often not possible to rigorously...

Supplementary Table and Supplementary References

Andes.rot: Gplates rotation file of the Andean shortening reconstruction

Andes.gpml: Gplates shape file of the Andean shortening reconstruction.

We investigate the development of mantle anisotropy associated with the evolution of the Rif-Gibraltar-Betic (RGB) slab of the western Mediterranean and predict SKS-splitting directions for comparison with the recent observations compiled in Diaz and Gallart (2014). Our numerical model of slab evolution starts at 35 Ma and builds on our on recent w...

At two trench segments below the Andes, the Nazca Plate is subducting sub-horizontally over B200–300 km, thought to result from a combination of buoyant oceanic-plateau subduction and hydrodynamic mantle-wedge suction. Whether the actual conditions for both processes to work in concert existed is uncertain. Here we infer from a tectonic reconstruct...

ASPECT (Advanced Solver for Problems in Earth’s ConvecTion) is a massively parallel finite element code originally designed for modeling thermal convection in the mantle with a Newtonian rheology. The code is characterized by modern numerical methods, high-performance parallelism and extensibility. This last characteristic is illustrated in this wo...

Advances in global seismic tomography have increasingly motivated identification of subducted lithosphere in Earth's deep mantle, creating novel opportunities to link plate tectonics and mantle evolution. Chief among those is the quest for a robust subduction reference frame, wherein the mantle assemblage of subducted lithosphere is used to reconst...

The Pyrenees at the Iberia-Europe collision zone contain sediments showing Albian- Cenomanian high-temperature metamorphism, and coeval alkaline magmatic rocks. Stemming from different views on Jurassic-Cretaceous Iberian microplate kinematics, two schools of thought exist on the trigger of this thermal pulse: one invoking hyperextension of the Ibe...

Understanding the evolution of extinct ocean basins through time and space demands the integration of surface kinematics and mantle dynamics. We explore the existence, origin, and implications of a proposed oceanic slab burial ground under Greenland through a comparison of seismic tomography, slab sinking rates, regional plate reconstructions, and...

Subduction mega-thrust earthquakes in the SW Ryukyu trench pose a seismic and tsunami hazard. One of the objectives of this study is to estimate the downdip width of the seismogenic zone using numerical modeling to determine the temperature distribution along the plate interface. However, this approach depends strongly on the thermal parameters of...

Sensitivity analysis with synthetic models is widely used in seismic tomography as a means for assessing the spatial resolution of solutions produced by, in most cases, linear or iterative nonlinear inversion schemes. The most common type of synthetic reconstruction test is the so-called checkerboard resolution test in which the synthetic model com...

The northern plate boundary of the Caribbean Plate (CAR) is a strike-slip system, accommodating relative eastward motion of CAR with respect to North America (NAM). In pre-Eocene times, however, relative motion of CAR with respect to NAM was towards the northeast and associated plate convergence was accommodated at a subduction zone between the oce...

Numerical simulations of thermal convection in the Earth's mantle often employ a pseudoplas-tic rheology in order to mimic the plate-like behavior of the lithosphere. Yet the benchmark tests available in the literature are largely based on simple linear rheologies in which the viscosity is either assumed to be constant or weakly dependent on temper...

Unravelling causes for absolute plate velocity change and continental dynamic topography change is challenging because of the interdependence of large-scale geodynamic driving processes. Here, we unravel a clear spatio-temporal relation between latest Cretaceous–Early Cenozoic subduction at the northern edge of the Australian plate, Early Cenozoic...

Seismic travel-time tomography of the mantle under SE Asia reveals patterns of subduction-related seismic P-wave velocity anomalies that are of great value in helping to understand the region's tectonic development. We discuss tomography and tectonic interpretations of an area centred on Indonesia and including Malaysia, parts of the Philippines, N...

NB: The Paleolatitude calculator on www.paleolatitude.org has been updated in April 2016 to extend back to 550 Ma. Realistic appraisal of paleoclimatic information obtained from a particular location requires accurate knowledge of its paleolatitude defined relative to the Earth's spin-axis. This is crucial to, among others, correctly assess the am...

The Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean closed when the Amuria block, normally considered to have been part of the North China block since the early Mesozoic, and the southern margin of Siberia collided in Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous times. The resulting suture runs WSW-ENE and is reasonably well defi ned to the east of longitude 100°E. Because no evidence...

Subduction initiation is a critical link in the plate tectonic cycle. Intra-oceanic subduction zones can form along transform faults and fracture zones, but how subduction nucleates parallel to mid-ocean ridges, as in e.g. the Neotethys Ocean during the Jurassic, remains a matter of debate. In recent years, extensional detachment faults have been w...

Analyzing subduction initiation is key for understanding the coupling between plate tectonics and underlying mantle. Here we focus on supra-subduction zone (SSZ) ophiolites and how their formation links to intra-oceanic subduction initiation in an absolute plate motion frame. SSZ ophiolites form the majority of exposed oceanic lithosphere fragments...

Gondwana breakup since the Jurassic and the northward motion of India towards Eurasia were associated with formation of ocean basins and ophiolite obduction between and onto the Indian and Arabian margins. Here, we reconcile marine geophysical data from preserved oceanic basins with the age and location of ophiolites in NW India and SE Arabia, and...