Abstract
McKenzie and Parker1 have shown from displacements along faults and from seismic first motions that the North Pacific seems to be moving as a rigid plate relative to the surrounding continents. This motion is uniquely defined by a rotation axis which they estimated to be located near 50° N., 85° W. at the southern end of Hudson Bay. The sense is towards the north-west, clockwise as viewed from the pole. Palaeomagnetic evidence from North America and the magnetization of Pacific Ocean seamounts suggest that this rotation dates from Cretaceous time (108 yr), and that the total angle is perhaps as great as 100°, an average rate of 1° per million years.
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References
McKenzie, D. P., and Parker, R. L., Nature, 216, 1276 (1967).
Grommé, C. S., Merrill, R. T., and Verhoogen, J., J. Geophys. Res., 72, 5661 (1967).
Richards, M. L., Vacquier, V., and Van Voorhis, G. D., Geophysics, 32, 687 (1967).
Vacquier, V., Proceedings, Benedum Earth Magnetism Symposium, 123 (1962).
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FARRELL, W. Has the Pacific Basin moved as a Rigid Plate since the Cretaceous?. Nature 217, 1034–1035 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/2171034a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2171034a0
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