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Tectonophysics
Donald L. Turcotte
Cornell University

I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.

Mantle Convection
Rheology
Plate Tectonics
Hotspots and Plumes
Continents
Earthquakes
Fractals, Chaos, and Self-Organized
Criticality
VIII. Conclusions

GLOSSARY
Elastic rebound Relative motion between plates causes
elastic deformation of the plates adjacent to a fault;
when slip occurs on the fault, the plates rebound.
Fractals Statistical distribution in which the number of
objects has a power-law dependence on their size.
Lithosphere Cool rigid outer shell of the earth that is
capable of transmitting elastic stresses.
Mantle convection The solid interior of the earth flows
like a fluid in response to gravitational buoyancy forces.
Plate tectonics The lithosphere of the earth is broken into
a series of plates that are in relative motion with respect
to each other.
Plume Quasi-cylindrical flows in the mantle responsible
for hotspot volcanism.
Stick-slip Behavior of faults that causes earthquakes.
Subduction zone Region adjacent to an ocean trench
where the oceanic lithosphere bends and sinks into the
interior of the earth.

TECTONOPHYSICS is the branch of geophysics that

deals with the deformation of the solid earth. The solid
earth is composed of the mantle and the crust. The crust
is a thin surface layer (670 km thick) made up of rocks
derived from the mantle by partial melting. The earth is
a heat engine. Heat is produced within the earth due to
the decay of radioactive elements. The loss of this heat
to the surface drives solid-state thermal convection in the
earths mantle. The surface plates of plate tectonics are
part of this convection system. New surface plates are created at the global midocean ridge system (accretional plate
margins). The plates move away from the ocean ridges at
velocities of a few centimeters per year in a process known
as seafloor spreading. The plates behave rigidly because
the rocks that make up the plates are cold and strong.
The plates are also known as the lithosphere and have a
typical thickness of 100 km. Since new plates are continuously being created, old plates must be destroyed. This
occurs at ocean trenches (subduction zones) where the
plates bend and sink into the earths interior. The relative

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motion between plates at plate boundaries results in volcanism, earthquakes, and mountain building.
The earths surface is made up of ocean basins and
continents. The ocean basins participate in the plate tectonic cycle but the continents do not. The continental crust
is thicker and less dense than the oceanic crust. Plates
with continental crust are gravitationally stable and cannot be subducted. However, continents ride along with
the relative motions of the plates resulting in continental
drift. At times, these motions result in continental collisions, a major source of mountain building. Mountain
ranges are extremely complex, with deformation occurring on a wide range of scales involving both brittle and
fluid-like deformation. However, the statistical aspects of
this deformation appear to obey simple fractal relationships. Continental tectonics can certainly exhibit deterministic, chaotic behavior and may involve examples of
self-organized criticality.

I. MANTLE CONVECTION
A fluid layer that is heated from below or within and cooled
from above is likely to convect. The near-surface fluid is
cooler and more dense than the fluid at depth; the surface
fluid will tend to sink and the hotter, less dense fluid at
depth will rise. A simple example of a fluid layer heated
from below is illustrated in Fig. 1; the temperature T0 of
the upper boundary is lower than the temperature T1 of the
lower boundary. Cooling from above creates a cold thermal boundary layer adjacent to the upper boundary that
is gravitationally unstable and forms a cold descending
plume. Similarly, a hot thermal boundary layer is created
adjacent to the lower boundary that is also gravitationally
unstable and forms a hot ascending plume. The gravitational body forces in the plumes drive a cellular convective

flow with a wavelength . Thermal gradients are restricted

to the boundary layers and plumes; the isothermal cores
have a temperature Tc halfway between T0 and T1 .
When the earth formed by accretion some 4.5 billion
years ago (4.5 Ga) it was hotter than it is today. The earth is
cooling at a rate of about 100 K/Ga. This may not seem like
a very large temperature change, but this secular cooling
results in a substantial heat loss to the surface. In addition,
large amounts of heat are generated within the earth by
the decay of the radioactive isotopes of uranium, thorium,
and potassium. It is estimated that about one-half of the
present heat loss from the interior of the earth is due to
secular cooling, and one-half due to the decay of radioactive elements. Thus the solid mantle of the earth is heated
from within and from below (due to heat loss from the
core) and would be expected to convect if it were a fluid.
The acceptance that the solid interior of the earth behaves as a fluid due to solid-state creep was slow in
coming. Although a minority of earth scientists had long
advocated continental drift, general acceptance of mantle
convection and large-scale surface displacements came
only in the early 1970s. The geometrical similarity between the east coasts of North, Central, and South America
and the west coasts of Europe and Africa was striking. Arthur Holmes, one of the leading British geologists
during the first half of this century, advocated thermal convection in the mantle as the driving force for continental
drift in 1931, but he was ridiculed by the leading geophysicists of the day. The primary objection was that solid rocks
could not possibly have a fluid behavior. Yet conclusive
evidence that mantle rocks behaved as a fluid was available
in the last half of the nineteenth century. Gravity surveys
in India had shown that the Himalayas had roots. That the
light crustal rocks that created the highest topography on
the planet floated like blocks of wood in water. How could
this occur if the mantle rocks did not have a fluid behavior?

FIGURE 1 Thermal boundary-layer structure of two-dimensional thermal convection in a fluid layer heated from
below.

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Further evidence that the solid rocks of the mantle behaved as a fluid came from studies of postglacial rebound.
In Scandinavia, the thick glacial ice cover depressed the
area during the last ice age. The result was that, after the
ice cover melted, the area rebounded and shorelines were
elevated. In 1937 N. A. Haskell used this rate of elevation to quantify the fluid behavior of the solid mantle.
Although his results were not generally recognized for
another 30 years, today his values are still accepted as
being basically correct. But the question remained, Why
should a solid exhibit a fluid-like behavior? In the 1950s,
laboratory studies showed that solids near their melting
temperature behave as fluids. The flow of crystalline ice
in glaciers is one example. It was recognized that the diffusion of vacancies (vacant lattice sites) and the movement
of dislocations (crystal irregularities) in stress fields could
lead to the very slow displacements associated with the
flow of glaciers and the mantle. Today our concepts of
solid-state creep, rebound of depressed areas, and mantle
convection are all completely consistent with each other.
Mantle convection carries heat upward through the interior of the earth. The required velocities are a few centimeters per year: an apparently low velocity but, on geological time scales, capable of drifting continents. Continental
drift is a natural consequence of mantle convection.
The earth behaves like a heat engine. Thermal convection converts heat into flows. These flows are responsible
for plate tectonics and, either directly or indirectly, volcanism, earthquakes, and mountain building.

II. RHEOLOGY
Rheology is the science of deformation. Rocks can exhibit
a wide range of rheologies including elastic, fracture, plastic, and viscous. Tectonic consequences include faults and
folds as well as mantle convection.
At atmospheric pressure and room temperature most
rocks are brittle; that is, they behave nearly elastically until they fail by fracture. Cracks or fractures in rock along
which there has been little or no relative displacement are
known as joints. They occur on a wide range of scales in all
types of rocks. Joints are commonly found in sets defining
parallel or intersecting patterns of failure related to local
stress orientations. The breakdown of surface rocks by
erosion and weathering is often controlled by systems of
joints along which the rocks are particularly weak and susceptible to disintegration and removal. These processes in
turn enhance the visibility of the jointing. Faults are fractures across which there has been a relative displacement.
Although fracture is important in shallow crustal rocks
at low temperatures and pressures, there are many circumstances in which rocks behave as a ductile material.

In determining the transition from brittle to ductile behavior, pressure, temperature, and strain rate are important.
If the confining pressure of rock is of the order of the
brittle strength of the rock, a transition from brittle to ductile behavior will occur. This transition typically occurs
at a depth of about 10 km. To model the ductile behavior
of crustal and mantle rocks, it is often appropriate to use
an idealized elastic-perfectly plastic rheology. An elasticperfectly plastic material exhibits a linear elastic behavior
until a yield stress is reached. The material can then be
deformed plastically an unlimited amount at this stress.
At temperatures that are a significant fraction of the
melt temperature the atoms and dislocations in a crystalline solid become sufficiently mobile to result in creep
when the solid is subjected to deviatoric stresses. At very
low stresses diffusion processes dominate, and the crystalline solid behaves as a Newtonian fluid with a viscosity
that depends exponentially on the pressure and the inverse
absolute temperature. At higher stresses the motion of dislocations becomes the dominant creep process, resulting
in a non-Newtonian or nonlinear fluid behavior that also
has an exponential pressure and inverse absolute temperature dependence. Mantle convection and continental drift
are attributed to these thermally activated creep processes
as discussed above.
Rocks can behave elastically on short time scales but as
a fluid on long time scales. Such behavior can be modeled
with a rheological law that combines linear elastic and viscous rheologies. A material that behaves both elastically
and viscously is known as a viscoelastic medium.
Folding is evidence that crustal rocks also exhibit ductile behavior under stress. Pressure solution creep is a
mechanism that can account for the ductility of crustal
rocks at relatively low temperatures and pressures. This
process involves the dissolving of minerals in regions of
high pressure and their precipitation in regions of low pressure. As a result, creep of the rock occurs. Folding can also
result from the plastic deformation of rock.

III. PLATE TECTONICS

Plate tectonics is a model in which the outer shell of the
earth is broken into a number of thin rigid plates that
move with respect to one another. The relative velocities of
the plates are of the order of a few centimeters per year.
The basic hypothesis of plate tectonics was given by Jason
Morgan in 1968. The concept of rigid plates with deformations primarily concentrated near plate boundaries provides a comprehensive understanding of the global distribution of earthquakes, volcanism, and mountain building.
The distribution of the major surface plates is given in
Fig. 2; the ridge axes, subduction zones, and transform

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FIGURE 2 Distribution of the major surface plates. The ridge axes, subduction zones, and transform faults that make
up the plate boundaries are shown.

faults that make up the plate boundaries are shown. The

outer portion of the earth, termed the lithosphere, is made
up of relatively cool, stiff rocks and has an average thickness of about 100 km. The lithosphere is divided into a
small number of mobile plates that are continuously being created and consumed at their edges. At ocean ridges,
adjacent plates move apart in a process known as seafloor
spreading. As the adjacent plates diverge, hot mantle rock
ascends to fill the gap. The hot, solid mantle rock behaves
like a fluid because of solid-state creep processes. As the
hot mantle rock cools, it becomes rigid and accretes to
the plates, creating new plate area. For this reason ocean
ridges are also known as accretionary plate boundaries.
Because the surface area of the earth is essentially constant, there must be a complementary process of plate
consumption. This occurs at ocean trenches. The surface
plates bend and descend into the interior of the earth in
a process known as subduction. At an ocean trench the
two adjacent plates converge, and one descends beneath
the other. For this reason ocean trenches are also known as
convergent plate boundaries. A cross-sectional view of the
creation and consumption of a typical plate is illustrated
in Fig. 3.
Plate tectonics is directly associated with mantle convection. The pattern of thermal convection illustrated in
Fig. 1 can provide a direct understanding of why the earth
has plate tectonics. The thermal boundary layer at the surface of the earth is the lithosphere. This is the cold thermal

boundary layer associated with the loss of heat to the surface of the earth. Because the viscosity of mantle rock is
exponentially temperature dependent, the cold lithosphere
is essentially rigid and behaves as a series of nearly rigid
plates. Ascending convection is associated with ocean
ridges. New seafloor is created at ocean ridges and the
seafloor spreads away from the ridge axis at a velocity u
as illustrated in Fig. 3.
As the ocean lithosphere moves away from the ocean
ridge where it was created, it cools and becomes gravitationally unstable with respect to the rock beneath. The

FIGURE 3 Accretion of a lithospheric plate at an ocean ridge

(accretional plate margin) and its subduction at an ocean trench
(subduction zone). The asthenosphere, which lies beneath the
lithosphere, and the volcanic line above the subducting lithosphere
are also shown. The plate migrates away from the ridge crest at
the seafloor spreading velocity .

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oceanic lithosphere bends and sinks into the interior of the

earth at an ocean trench as illustrated in Fig. 3.
A. The Lithosphere
An essential feature of plate tectonics is that only the outer
shell of the earth, the lithosphere, remains rigid during
long intervals of geologic time. Because of their low temperatures, rocks in the lithosphere resist deformation on
time scales of up to billion years. In contrast, the rock
beneath the lithosphere is sufficiently hot that solid-state
creep occurs. The lithosphere is composed of both mantle
and crustal rocks. The oceanic lithosphere has an average
thickness of 100 km, with the uppermost 6 to 7 km being the oceanic crust. The oceanic lithosphere participates
in the plate tectonic cycle. The continental lithosphere has
a typical thickness of about 200 km. Typically, the upper 30 km of the continental lithosphere is continental
crust. Because of the buoyancy of the continental crust,
the continental lithosphere does not subduct, although it
does participate in plate motions.
The elastic rigidity of the lithosphere also allows it to
flex when subjected to a load. An example is the load
applied by a volcanic island. The load of the Hawaiian
Islands causes the lithosphere to bend downward around
the load, resulting in a moat, a region of deeper water around the islands. The elastic bending of the lithosphere under vertical loads can also explain the structure
of ocean trenches and some sedimentary basins. However,
the entire lithosphere is not effective in transmitting elastic stresses. Only about the upper half of it is sufficiently
rigid that elastic stresses are not relaxed on time scales of
a billion years. This fraction of the lithosphere is referred
to as the elastic lithosphere. Solid-state creep processes
relax stresses in the lower, hotter part of the lithosphere.
This relaxation can be understood in terms of a viscoelastic rheology. This lower part of the lithosphere, however,
remains a coherent part of the plates.
The strength of the lithosphere allows the plates to transmit elastic stresses over geologic time intervals. The plates
act as stress guides. Stresses that are applied at the boundaries of a plate can be transmitted through the interior of
the plate. The ability of the plates to transmit stress over
large distances is a key factor in driving tectonic plates.
These stresses are also responsible for some intraplate
earthquakes and small amounts of intraplate deformation.
B. Accretional Plate Margins (Ocean Ridges)
Lithospheric plates are created at ocean ridges. The two
plates on either side of an ocean ridge move away from
each other at nearly steady velocities of a few centimeters
per year. As the two plates diverge, hot mantle rock flows

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upward to fill the gap. The upwelling mantle rock cools
by conductive heat loss to the surface. The cooling rock
accretes to the base of the spreading plates, becoming
part of them; the structure of an accreting plate margin is
illustrated in Fig. 4.
As the plates move away from the ocean ridge, they
continue to cool and thicken. Seafloor depth as a function of age is shown in Fig. 5. As the lithosphere cools, it
contracts thermally and becomes denser; as a result, its upper surfacethe ocean floorsinks relative to the ocean
surface. The topographic elevation of the ocean ridge is
due to the lower-density, thinner, and hotter lithosphere
near the axis of accretion at the ridge crest. A simple heat
loss model (half-space cooling model) predicts that the
subsidence is proportional to the square root of age. This
is a good approximation for young seafloor as shown in
Fig. 5 but overestimates the subsidence for seafloor older
than about 100 Ma. This deviation can be attributed to the
heating of the base of the oceanic lithosphere by mantle
plumes. This heating is approximated by assuming a plate
model with a specified lithosphere thickness. The data appear to favor a maximum lithosphere (plate) thickness of
125 km as shown in Fig. 5. The elevation of the ridge
also exerts a gravitational body force that drives the lithosphere away from the accretional boundary; it is one of
the important forces driving the plates and is known as
gravitational sliding or ridge push.
Ocean ridges generate a large fraction of the Earths
volcanism. Because almost all the ridge system is below
sea level, only a small part of this volcanism can be readily
observed. Ridge volcanism can be seen in Iceland, where

FIGURE 4 Structure of an accretional plate margin (x is the horizontal coordinate and y the vertical coordinate). The rigid lithosphere, thickness yL , spreads away from the ridge axis at velocity
u0 . The solid contours are isotherms; the seafloor has a temperature T0 and the mantle beneath the lithosphere has a temperature
T1 . Mantle material flows along the dashed lines to fill the gap
created by the spreading lithospheres. The depth of the subsiding
seafloor relative to the ridge axis is w.

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FIGURE 5 Seafloor depth as a function of age in the Atlantic,

Pacific, and Indian oceans. Comparisons are made with the halfspace cooling model (HSCM) and with plate models with plate
(lithosphere) thicknesses of 95 km (PM 95) and 125 km (PM 125).

the oceanic crust is sufficiently thick that the ridge crest

rises above sea level. The volcanism at ocean ridges is
caused by pressure-release melting. The diverging plates
induce an upwelling in the mantle. The temperature of the
ascending rock decreases slowly with decreasing pressure. The solidus temperature for melting decreases with
decreasing pressure at a much faster rate. When the temperature of the ascending mantle rock equals the solidus
temperature, melting begins. The ascending mantle rock
contains a low-melting-point basaltic component; this
component melts first to form the oceanic crust. The region where partial melting is occurring is known as the
asthenosphere.
C. Subduction
As the oceanic lithosphere moves away from an ocean
ridge, it cools, thickens, and becomes more dense because
of thermal contraction. Even though the basaltic rocks of
the oceanic crust are lighter than the underlying mantle
rocks, the colder mantle rocks in the lithosphere become
sufficiently dense to make old oceanic lithosphere heavy
enough to be gravitationally unstable with respect to the
hot mantle rocks beneath the lithosphere. As a result of this
gravitational instability the oceanic lithosphere founders
and sinks into the interior of the earth, creating the ocean
trenches. This process is known as subduction and is illustrated schematically in Fig. 6.
The excess density of the rocks of the descending lithosphere results in a downward buoyancy force. Because
the lithosphere behaves elastically, it can transmit stresses,
i.e., it can act as a stress guide. A portion of the negative
buoyancy force acting on the descending plate is transmit-

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FIGURE 6 Illustration of the subduction of the oceanic lithosphere at an ocean trench. The line of volcanic edifices associated with most subduction zones is shown. A substantial fraction
of the sediments that coat the basaltic oceanic crust is scraped off
during subduction to form an accretionary prism of sediments. In
some cases, back-arc spreading forms a marginal basin behind
the subduction zone.

ted to the surface plate, which is pulled toward the ocean

trench. This is slab pull, one of the important forces driving
plate tectonics.
Ocean trenches are the sites of most of the largest earthquakes. Earthquakes occur on the dipping fault plane that
separates the descending lithosphere from the overlying
lithosphere. Earthquakes at ocean trenches can occur to
depths of 660 km. This seismogenic region, known as the
WadatiBenioff zone, delineates the approximate structure of the descending plate.
Volcanism is also associated with subduction. A line of
regularly spaced volcanoes closely parallels the trend of
almost all the ocean trenches. These volcanoes may result in an island arc or they may occur within continental
crust. The volcanoes generally lie above where the descending plate is 125 km deep, as illustrated in Fig. 6.
It is far from obvious why volcanism is associated with
subduction. The descending lithosphere is cold compared
with the surrounding mantle, and thus it acts as a heat sink
rather than as a heat source. The downward flow of the
descending slab is expected to entrain flow in the overlying mantle wedge. However, this flow will be primarily
downward; thus, magma cannot be produced by pressurerelease melting. One possible source of heat is frictional
heating on the fault plane between the descending lithosphere and the overlying mantle.
When a subduction zone is adjacent to a continent,
as in the case of South America, subduction zone volcanism can form great mountain belts, for example, the
Andes. In some subduction zones tensional stresses can
result in back-arc, seafloor spreading and the formation of
a marginal basin as illustrated in Fig. 6. An example is the
Sea of Japan.

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IV. HOTSPOTS AND PLUMES

Not all volcanism and tectonism is restricted to the plate
margins. Hotspots are anomalous areas of surface volcanism that cannot be directly associated with plate tectonic
processes. The term hotspot is used rather loosely. It is applied to any long-lived volcanic center that is not part of
the global network of midocean ridges and island arcs.
The prototype example is Hawaii. Anomalous regions
of thick crust on ocean ridges are also considered to be
hotspots. Several hotspot lists have been published, and the
number of volcanic centers included on these lists ranges
from about 20 to more than 100. Figure 7 shows the locations of 38 prominent hotspots. In many cases hotspots
have well-defined tracks associated with volcanic ridges
or lines of volcanic edifices; these are also shown in Fig. 7.
In 1971, Jason Morgan attributed hotspot volcanism to
mantle plumes. Mantle plumes are quasi-cylindrical concentrated upflows of hot mantle material; they represent
the ascending plumes from a basal thermal boundary layer
as illustrated in Fig. 1. Pressure-release melting in the hot
ascending plume rock produces the basaltic volcanism that
is forming the Hawaiian Island chain. The hypothesis of
fixed mantle plumes beneath overriding plates explains
the systematic age progression of the Hawaiian-Emperor
island-seamount chain, the hotspot track extending from
Hawaii to the Aleutian Islands.
Most hotspots are also associated with topographic
swells. Hotspot swells are regional topographic highs with
widths of about 1000 km and up to 3 km of anomalous

elevation. The swell associated with the Hawaiian hotspot

is roughly parabolic in planform and it extends upstream
of the active hotspot some 500 km. The excess elevation
associated with the swell decays slowly down the track of
the hotspot. Hotspot swells are attributed to the buoyancy
of the hot, low-density plume rock impinging on the base
of the lithosphere.
Numerical and laboratory studies on the initial ascent
of a low-viscosity buoyant plume through a high-viscosity
fluid have shown that the plume consists of a large leading
diapir or plume head followed by a thin conduit connecting
the diapir with the source region. It has been proposed that
massive flood basalt eruptions are the result of pressurerelease melting in the plume head as it impinges on the
lithosphere from below. According to this model, flood
basalt eruptions mark the initiation of hotspot tracks as illustrated in Fig. 7. Specifically the Deccan, Tertiary North
Atlantic, Parana, and Karoo flood basalts represent the
onset of the currently active hotspots at Reunion, Iceland,
Tristan de Cunha, and Prince Edward. In each case nearly
2 106 km3 of magma erupted within a few million years
of hotspot initiation as the plume head reached the base
of the lithosphere.

V. CONTINENTS
The basic facets of plate tectonics do not require continents. But without continents little or no land would rise
above sea level and life as we know it would not exist.

FIGURE 7 Locations of 38 prominent hotspots are shown. In some cases, the associated hotspot tracks and flood
basalt provinces are also shown.

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The continental crust is much thicker than the oceanic
crust (40 vs 6 km) and contains primarily silicic rocks
that are less dense than the basaltic rocks of the oceanic
crust. The result is that the continental lithosphere is gravitationally stable and resists subduction. Because of the
plate tectonic cycle, the seafloor has an average age of
only about 100 Ma and the oldest seafloor has an age of
about 200 Ma. The mean age of the continents is greater
than 2 Ga and some parts have ages greater than 3 Ga.
A. Continental Drift
The continents are rafted about on the plates, resulting in
continental drift. The earliest arguments for continental
drift were based largely on the fit of the continents. Ever
since the first reliable maps were available, the remarkable fit between the east coast of South America and the
west coast of Africa has been noted. The fit was pointed
out as early as 1620 by Francis Bacon. North America,
Greenland, and Europe also fit as illustrated in Fig. 8. Detailed arguments supporting continental drift were given
by the well-known German meteorologist Alfred Wegener
in 1915. Wegeners book included his highly original picture of the breakup and subsequent drift of the continents
and his recognition of the supercontinent Pangea. Later
it was argued that there had formerly been a northern
continent, Laurasia, and a southern continent, Gondwanaland, separated by the Tethys ocean. Wegener assembled
a formidable array of facts and conjectures to support his
case, including the match between mountain belts in South
America and Africa; similar rock types, rock ages, and
fossil species are found on the two sides of the Atlantic
Ocean. Tropical climates had existed in polar regions at
the same times that arctic climates had existed in equatorial regions. Also, the evolution and dispersion of plant
and animal species were best explained in terms of ancient
land bridges, suggesting direct connections between now
widely separated continents.
Although the qualitative arguments favoring continental drift appear convincing today, they were summarily
rejected by the vast majority of earth scientists during the
first half of the 20th century. Only with the acceptance of
mantle convection and plate tectonics did continental drift
receive general acceptance.
B. Delamination and the Origin
of the Continental Crust
There is no evidence that the continental lithosphere is
subducted. This is attributed to the buoyancy of the continental crust, which results in the continental lithosphere
being gravitationally stable. However, the mantle portion of the continental lithosphere is sufficiently cold and

Tectonophysics

dense to be gravitationally unstable. Thus it is possible

for the lower part of the continental lithosphere, including
the lower continental crust, to delaminate and sink into
the lower mantle. It is widely accepted that delamination
of the continental lithosphere is presently occurring beneath the Himalayas and the Alps. Delamination also plays
an important role in the origin of the continental crust.
The rocks of the continental crust cannot be formed
directly from magmas that rise from the mantle. A more
complex, three-step hypothesis is required. (1) Basaltic
volcanism from the mantle associated with subduction
zone volcanics, continental rifts, and hotspots is responsible for the formation of the continental crust. (2) Intracrustal melting and high-temperature metamorphism
are responsible for the differentiation of the crust so that
the upper crust becomes more silicic and the lower crust
becomes more basic. Basaltic magmas from the mantle
intruded into a basaltic continental crust in the presence
of water can produce the granitic rocks associated with the
continental crust. (3) Delamination of substantial quantities of the continental lithosphere, including the mantle
and lower crust, returns a substantial fraction of the more
basic lower crust to the mantle. The residuum, composed
primarily of the upper crust, thus becomes more silicic.
C. The Wilson Cycle
J. Tuzo Wilson proposed in 1966 that continental drift
is cyclic. In particular, he proposed that oceans open and
close; this is now known as the Wilson cycle and was based
on the opening and closing of the Atlantic Ocean. The
Wilson cycle, in its simplest form, is illustrated in Fig. 9.
The first step in the Wilson cycle is the breakup of a continent. This occurs on continental rift zones. Present examples are the East African Rift system and the Rio Grande
graben. These may or may not break apart to form future
oceans. Aulacogens (triple junctions with three rifts connected at about 120 ) are believed to play a key role in the
initiation of rifting and the breakup of continents. Aulacogens are the surface expressions of the impingement of
mantle plumes on the base of the continental lithosphere
and are associated with lithospheric swells. An example of
a lithospheric swell on a continent is the Ethiopian swell on
the East African Rift. An example of a triple junction is at
the southern end of the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the
East African Rift. When a continent opens, two of the rifts
separate and become part of an ocean. The third rift aborts
and is known as a failed arm. Examples of failed arms
associated with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean are the
St. Lawrence River Valley Rift and the Niger Rift in Africa.
The second step in the Wilson cycle is the opening of
the ocean as illustrated in Fig. 9b. The rift valley splits
apart and oceanic crust is formed at an accretional plate

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FIGURE 8 The remarkable fit between the continental margins of North and South America and Greenland, Europe,
and Africa is illustrated. This fit was one of the primary early arguments for continental drift.

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and Asia. This collision occurred about 45 Ma and has

been continuing since. The initial collision resulted in
a major global reorganization of plate motions that is
best documented by the bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor
seamount chain shown in Fig. 7.

VI. EARTHQUAKES

FIGURE 9 Illustration of the Wilson cycle. (a) Initiation of new

ocean at a continental rift zone. (b) Opening of the ocean (am,
accretional margin). (c) Initiation of subduction (sz, subduction
zone; vl, volcanic line). (d) Ridge subduction. (e) Continental collision (suz, suture zone).

boundary. The Red Sea is an example of the initial stages of

the opening of an ocean, while the Atlantic Ocean is an example of a mature stage. The margins of an opening ocean
are known as passive continental margins, in contrast to
active continental margins, where subduction is occurring.
The third step in the Wilson cycle is the initiation of subduction (Fig. 9c). A passive continental margin is a favored
site for the initiation of subduction because it is already a
zone of weakness established during rifting. The differential subsidence between aging seafloor and the continental lithosphere provides a source of stress. The fourth step
in the Wilson cycle, illustrated in Fig. 9d, is ridge subduction. If the velocity of subduction is higher than the
velocity of seafloor spreading, the ocean will close and
eventually the accretional plate margin will be subducted.
Ridge subduction played an important role in the recent
geological evolution of the western United States and in
the development of the San Andreas fault system.
The fifth and final stage in the Wilson cycle, illustrated
in Fig. 9e, is the continental collision that occurs when
the ocean closes. This terminates the Wilson cycle. Continental collision is one of the primary mechanisms for
the creation of mountains in the continents; the other is
subduction. The Himalayas and the Alps are examples of
mountain belts caused by continental collisions, and the
Andes is a mountain belt associated with subduction. The
boundary between the two plates within the collision zone
is known as a suture zone. The Himalayas are the result of
the continental collision between the Indian subcontinent

One of the important phenomena associated with active

tectonics is earthquakes. A large fraction of the displacements that occur in the upper crust is associated with earthquakes. The understanding of the stick-slip behavior of
faults evolved from studies of the 1906 earthquake on the
San Andreas fault in northern California. This earthquake
and the subsequent fire destroyed much of San Francisco
(Fig. 10). Studies of the geodetic displacements associated with this earthquake led H. F. Reid to propose the
hypothesis of elastic rebound in 1910. This hypothesis is
totally consistent with plate tectonics, although the latter
evolved 60 years later. Displacements on the San Andreas
fault accommodate the relative motion between the Pacific
and the North American plates.
Elastic rebound and stick-slip behavior are illustrated
in Fig. 11. Faults lock, and a displacement occurs when
the stress across the fault builds up to a sufficient level
to cause rupture of the fault. This is known as stick-slip
behavior. When a fault sticks, elastic energy accumulates
in the rocks around the fault because of displacements at
a distance. When the stress on the fault reaches a critical
value, the fault slips and an earthquake occurs. The elastic
energy stored in the adjacent rock is partially dissipated as
heat by friction on the fault and is partially radiated away
in seismic waves. The surface displacements caused by
these waves are responsible for the extensive destruction
that occurs during major earthquakes. The release of the
stored elastic energy during an earthquake is known as
elastic rebound. Fault displacements associated with the
largest earthquakes are of the order of 30 m. About 4 m
of displacement occurred during the 1906 earthquake in
northern California.
Great earthquakes are generally associated with the
boundaries between the surface plates. They occur regularly where plates slide past each other (e.g., the San
Andreas fault) and in subduction zones (e.g., the 1960
earthquake in Chile and the 1964 earthquake in Alaska).
However, some plate boundaries are rather diffuse and
earthquakes can occur over broad regions. This is the
case in the western United States, where deformation and
mountain building occur from the Rocky Mountains to the
Pacific Coast. It is also true in China, where a broad zone of
deformation extends through the entire country, resulting
in many disastrous earthquakes including the Tangshan

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FIGURE 10 Destruction in San Francisco caused by the magnitude 8.3 earthquake, April 18, 1906, and the subsequent fire. It is estimated that there was 3000 deaths and about 28,000 buildings were destroyed.

earthquake in 1976, which killed some 500,000 people.

Broad zones of deformation are required by the evolving
motion of the plates; in some cases new boundaries evolve
to accommodate the required relative velocities. Earthquakes can also occur in the interior of apparently rigid
plates. An example is the series of three large earthquakes
that occurred near New Madrid, Missouri, in 18111812.
These intraplate earthquakes are attributed to the large
stresses that are transmitted through the interior of plates;
they generally do not result in the development of significant mountain belts.

VII. FRACTALS, CHAOS, AND

SELF-ORGANIZED CRITICALITY
The scale invariance of geological phenomena is one of the
concepts taught to a student of geology. It is pointed out

that an object that defines the scale, i.e., a coin, a rock

hammer, or a person, must be included whenever a photograph of a geological feature is taken. Without the scale, it
is often impossible to determine whether the photograph
covers 10 cm or 10 km. For example, self-similar folds
occur over this range of scales. Another example is be an
aerial photograph of a rocky coastline. Without an object
with a characteristic dimension, such as a tree or house,
the elevation of the photograph cannot be determined. It
was in this context that Benoit Mandelbrot introduced the
concept of fractals in 1967. The definition of a fractal
distribution is
Ni = C/riD ,

(1)

where Ni is the number of objects with a linear size ri , C

is a constant, and D is the fractal dimension. Mandelbrot
showed that the perimeter Pi of a rocky coastline (e.g.,
Maine) or a contour on a topographic map satisfies Eq. (1)

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FIGURE 11 Illustration of the stick-slip and elastic-rebound behavior of faults. (a) After an earthquake the fault sticks and the relative plate velocity u0 causes an elastic deformation of the plates.
(b) As elastic distortion occurs the stress builds up in the plates
until the fault slips. (c) Slip on the fault results in elastic rebound,
the fault sticks, and the process repeats.

if ri is the length of the step used in measuring the perimeter and Ni the number of steps:
Pi = Ni ri = C /riD1 .

(2)

The shorter the step, the longer the perimeter; D is usually about 1.25. Because of scale invariance, the length of
the coastline increases as the length of the measuring rod
decreases according to a power law; the power determines
the fractal dimension of the coastline. It is not possible to
obtain a specific value for the length of a coastline, owing
to all the small indentations, down to a scale of millimeters
or less.
Many geological phenomena are scale invariant. Examples include the frequency-size distributions of rock
fragments, faults, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and oil
fields. The empirical applicability of power-law statistics
to geological phenomena was recognized long before the
concept of fractals was conceived. A striking example
is the GutenbergRichter relation for the frequencymagnitude statistics of earthquakes. The proportionality factor in the relationship between the logarithm of
the number of earthquakes and earthquake magnitude is
known as the b-value. It has been recognized for nearly

50 years that, almost universally, b = 0.9. It is now accepted that the GutenbergRichter relationship is equivalent to a fractal relationship between the number of earthquakes and the characteristic size of the rupture; the value
of the fractal dimension D is simply twice the b-value;
typically D = 1.8 for distributed seismicity.
An example for earthquakes in southern California
is given in Fig. 12. The fact that the distribution of
earthquakes is a fractal is evidence that the distribution
of faults on which the earthquakes are occurring is also a
fractal. Crustal deformation is occurring on all scales in a
scale-invariant manner. Although the deformation is complex and chaotic, the deformation satisfies scale-invariant
fractal statistics.
Fractal concepts can also be applied to continuous distributions; an example is topography. Mandelbrot has used
fractal concepts to generate synthetic landscapes that look
remarkably similar to actual landscapes. The fractal dimension is a measure of the roughness of the features.
The earths topography is a composite of many competing
influences. Topography is created by tectonic processes including faulting, folding, and flexure. It is modified and
destroyed by erosion and sedimentation. There is considerable empirical evidence that erosion is scale invariant and fractal; a river network is a classic example of a
fractal tree. Topography often appears to be complex and
chaotic, yet there is order in the complexity. A standard
approach to the analysis of a continuous function such as
topography along a linear track is to determine the coefficients An in a Fourier series as a function of the wavelength
n . If the amplitudes An have a power-law dependence on
the wavelength n , a fractal distribution may result. For
topography and bathymetry it is found that, to a good approximation, the Fourier amplitudes are proportional to

FIGURE 12 Number of earthquakes that occurred in southern

California with a magnitude greater than a specified value from
1985 to 1999. Between a magnitude of 1 and a magnitude of 6,
the data correlate with b = 0.98 and D = 1.96.

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the wavelengths. This is also true for a Brownian walk,

which can be generated as follows. Take a step forward
and flip a coin; if tails occurs, take a step to the right, and if
heads occurs, take a step to the left; repeat the process. The
divergence of the walk or signal increases in proportion to
the square root of the number of steps. A spectral analysis
of the random walk shows that the Fourier coefficients An
are proportional to the wavelengths n .
Although fractal distributions would be useful simply as
a means of quantifying scale-invariant distributions, their
applicability to geological problems has a more fundamental basis. Ed Lorenz, in 1963, derived a set of nonlinear differential equations that approximate thermal convection in a fluid. This set of equations was the first to
be shown to exhibit chaotic behavior. Infinitesimal variations in initial conditions led to first-order differences
in the solutions obtained. This is the definition of chaos.
The equations are completely deterministic; however, because of the exponential sensitivity to initial conditions,
the evolution of a chaotic solution is not predictable. The
evolution of the solution must be treated statistically and
the applicable statistics are often fractal. Mantle convection is one example of a chaotic process in nature.
Slider-block models have long been recognized as a
simple analogue for the behavior of a fault. The block is
dragged along a surface with a spring and the friction between the surface and the block results in the stick-slip
behavior that is characteristic of faults. It has been shown
that a pair of slider blocks exhibits chaotic behavior. The
two slider blocks are attached to each other by a spring,
and each is attached to a constant-velocity driver plate by
another spring. As long as there is any asymmetry in the
problem, for example, unequal block masses, chaotic behavior can result. This is evidence that the deformation of
the crust associated with displacements on faults is chaotic
and, thus, is a statistical process. This is entirely consistent with the observation that earthquakes obey fractal
statistics.
The concept of self-organized criticality was introduced
by Per Bak and colleagues in 1988 in terms of a cellular
automaton model for avalanches on a sand pile. A natural
system is said to be in a state of self-organized criticality
if, when perturbed from this state, it evolves naturally back
to the state of marginal stability. The input to the system
is slow and steady and the output is in avalanches which
satisfy fractal frequency-size statistics. Earthquakes are an
example of such a system. The slow tectonic motion of the
plates is the input and the earthquakes are the avalanches
which satisfy fractal statistics as shown in Fig. 12.
As discussed above, a pair of interacting slider blocks
can exhibit chaotic behavior. Large numbers of driven
slider blocks are an example of self-organized criticality. A

two-dimensional array of slider blocks is considered. Each

block is attached to its four neighbors and to a constantvelocity driver plate by springs. Slip events occur chaotically and the frequencysize statistics of the events are
generally fractal. By increasing the number of blocks considered, the low-order chaotic system is transformed into a
high-order system that exhibits self-organized criticality.

VIII. CONCLUSIONS
Mantle convection and plate tectonics provide a general
framework for understanding tectonophysics. Transport
of heat from the interior of the earth drives solid-state
convection. Plate tectonics is a direct consequence of this
convection. The relative velocity between plates causes
crustal deformation at the boundaries between plates. In
some cases this deformation is diffuse and is spread over
a broad area. Volcanism occurs at most plate boundaries
and is also responsible for crustal deformation.
Although we now have a general understanding of
tectonophysics, we are still not able to predict earthquakes.
Deformation on a local scale is extremely complex. In
fact, it is quite likely that local deformation is so complex and chaotic that it is fundamentally impossible to
make predictions of earthquakes. Only risk assessments
will be possible. There is increasing evidence that scaleinvariant, fractal statistics are applicable to a variety of
tectonophysics problems. One possible application is the
direct association of large earthquakes with small earthquakes; a risk of a great earthquake is present only where
small earthquakes are occurring and the level of local seismicity can be used to assess the seismic hazard.

SEE ALSO THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES

CHAOS CONTINENTAL CRUST EARTHQUAKE MECHANISMS AND PLATE TECTONICS EARTHS MANTLE (GEOPHYSICS) GEOLOGY, EARTHQUAKE FRACTALS PLATE
TECTONICS VOLCANOLOGY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fowler, C. M. R. (1990). The Solid Earth, Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge.
Press, F., and Siever, R. (1997). Understanding Earth, W. H. Freeman,
San Francisco.
Turcotte, D. L. (1997). Fractals and Chaos in Geology and Geophysics,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Turcotte, D. L., and Schubert, G. (1982). Geodynamics, Wiley, New
York.