The supercontinent cycle: are there two patterns of cyclicity?

✍ Scribed by Kent C Condie

• Book ID: 104354107
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 126 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1464-343X
• DOI: 10.1016/s0899-5362(02)00005-2

✦ Synopsis

Continental rifting and collisional events in the last 1000 My indicate two types of supercontinent cycles: one in which breakup of one supercontinent is followed by formation of another supercontinent, and one in which a new supercontinent forms from long-lived, small supercontinents, which never fragment or incompletely fragment due to insufficient mantle shielding. The small supercontinents may form over linear, disconnected subduction arrays rather than over a region with a high density of closely connected subduction arrays.