Spreading behaviour of the Pacific-Farallon ridge system since 83 Ma

Abstract

We present improved rotations, complete with uncertainties, for the Pacific-Farallon Ridge (PFR) between geomagnetic chrons 34y (83Ma) and 10y (28.28 Ma). Despite substantial shortening since ~55 Ma, this ridge system and its remnants (e.g. the East Pacific Rise) have produced as much as 45 per cent of all oceanic lithosphere created since the Late Cretaceous, but reconstructions face the twin challenges of extensive subduction of Farallon crust-which precludes reconstruction by fitting conjugate magnetic anomaly and fracture zone (FZ) traces-and asymmetric spreading behaviour for at least the past 51Myr. We have calculated best-fit 'half'-angle stage rotations between nine geomagnetic chron boundaries (34y, 33y, 29o, 24.3o, 20o, 18.2o, 17.1y, 13y and 10y) using combined anomaly and FZ data from both the northern and southern Pacific Plate. For rotations younger than chron 24.3o, estimates for spreading asymmetry, derived using anomaly picks from yet-to-be subducted Farallon/Nazca crust in the south Pacific, allowfull stage rotations to be calculated. Between 50 and 83 Ma, where no direct constraints on spreading asymmetry are possible, a 'best-fit' full stage rotation was calculated based on the net Nazca:Pacific spreading asymmetry (Pacific spreading fraction fPAC = 0.44) over the past 50 Myr, with conservative lower and upper bounds, based on variability in the degree of spreading asymmetry over periods of <15 Myr, assuming fPACs of 0.5 and 0.36, respectively. Synthetic flowlines generated from our new stage rotation produce a better match to Pacific FZ trends than previously published rotations. With the exception of the chron 18o-20o rotation, the six stage poles for rotations between chrons 33y and 13y (74-33 Ma) all cluster tightly at 60-75°E, 60-68°N, consistent with the relatively constant trend of the major Pacific FZs. This stability spans at least one episode of Farallon Plate fragmentation caused by subduction of PFR segments beneath the Americas, at 55-48 Ma, which appears to have greatly accelerated divergence on the surviving ridge without significantly affecting the location of the instantaneous rotation pole. Together with quasi-periodic 15-20 Myr variations in the degree of spreading asymmetry that also appear to correlate with changes in spreading rate, this indicates that forces other than slab pull may be a factor in determining Pacific-Farallon Plate motions. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Royal Astronomical Society.