Dietmar Muller - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Dietmar Muller
Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
Published models for the plate tectonic evolution of the Western Indian Ocean suggest that the So... more Published models for the plate tectonic evolution of the Western Indian Ocean suggest that the Southern Mascarene Basin opened by oceanic crustal accretion between the continental margins of southwestern India and southeastern Madagascar. However, with the cessation of the Mascarene Basin spreading centre followed by a ridge jump resulting in the opening of the Carlsberg Ridge, almost all the traces of India-Madagascar divergence were carved away from the Indian Plate and attached to the African Plate. According to some recent studies, the Chain-Kairali Escarpment, a prominent feature on the southwestern continental margin of India, is possibly the only trace of India-Madagascar divergence that remained on the Indian Plate. But the exact conjugate correspondence of this feature on the Madagascar side is uncertain. Published plate tectonic reconstructions imply that the Vishnu Fracture Zone on the Indian side and the Mauritius Fracture Zone on the Madagascar side are aligned at chron C22ny (∼49.04 Ma). Based on the near collinearity of gravity anomaly trends, the Chain-Kairali Escarpment appears to be the landward extension of the Vishnu FZ. However, at chron C34ny (∼83.0 Ma), the Chain-Kairali Escarpment was in close proximity to the incipient Mahanoro Fracture Zone. In this study we investigate this incompatibility, using an up-to-date compilation of the tectonic elements from the conjugate regions of India and Madagascar and the latest available rotation parameters that describe India-Madagascar separation through a direct India-Seychelles-Madagascar plate circuit. Our revised plate reconstruction model suggests that the Chain-Kairali Escarpment was formed due to the strike-slip motion between the southeast coast of Madagascar and the then southwest coast of India during the initial stages of India-Madagascar breakup. The migration of the Chain-Kairali Escarpment from the proximity of the Mahanoro FZ and aligning with the Vishnu FZ was the result of several successive events. The first among those events was asymmetric crustal accretion in the Mascarene Basin due to ridge propagation, between chrons C34ny (83.0 Ma) to C33ny (∼73.62 Ma). The Chain-Kairali Escarpment and associated crustal weak zones offshore India appear to have facilitated subsequent initiation of the Mauritius FZ and its conjugate Vishnu FZ during a plate reorganization at about chron C33ny (∼73.62 Ma). The cessation of spreading in the Mascarene Basin and development of full extent of the Carlsberg Ridge, shortly after chron C27ny (60.92 Ma), resulted in the initiation of a long transform fault, coinciding with the Vishnu FZ, which connected the Carlsberg Ridge with the spreading centre of the Madagascar Basin. Therefore, the Vishnu FZ and the Chain-Kairali Escarpment are two independent features created during different episodes of evolution of the Western Indian Ocean and the Chain-Kairali Escarpment is not a landward extension of the Vishnu FZ.
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
GPlates is an open-source, cross-platform plate tectonic geographic information system, enabling ... more GPlates is an open-source, cross-platform plate tectonic geographic information system, enabling the interactive manipulation of plate-tectonic reconstructions and the visualization of geodata through geological time. GPlates allows the building of topological plate models representing the mosaic of evolving plate boundary networks through time, useful for computing plate velocity fields as surface boundary conditions for mantle convection models and for investigating physical and chemical exchanges of material between the surface and the deep Earth along tectonic plate boundaries. The ability of GPlates to visualize subsurface 3-D scalar fields together with traditional geological surface data enables researchers to analyze their relationships through geological time in a common plate tectonic reference frame. To achieve this, a hierarchical cube map framework is used for rendering reconstructed surface raster data to support the rendering of subsurface 3-D scalar fields using graphics-hardware-accelerated ray-tracing techniques. GPlates enables the construction of plate deformation zones-regions combining extension, compression, and shearing that accommodate the relative motion between rigid blocks. Users can explore how strain rates, stretching/shortening factors, and crustal thickness evolve through space and time and interactively update the kinematics associated with deformation. Where data sets described by geometries (points, lines, or polygons) fall within deformation regions, the deformation can be applied to these geometries. Together, these tools allow users to build virtual Earth models that quantitatively describe continental assembly, fragmentation and dispersal and are interoperable with many other mapping and modeling tools, enabling applications in tectonics, geodynamics, basin evolution, orogenesis, deep Earth resource exploration, paleobiology, paleoceanography, and paleoclimate. Plain Language Summary The GPlates virtual globe software provides the capability to reconstruct geodata attached to tectonic plates to develop and modify models that describe how the plates and their boundaries have evolved through time. It allows users to deform plates and to visualize surface tectonics in the context of convecting mantle structure and evolution by importing seismic tomography models or outputs from geodynamic models. GPlates applications include tectonics, geodynamics, basin evolution, orogenesis, deep Earth resource exploration, paleobiology, paleoceanography, and paleoclimate. The software is enabling end-users in universities, government organizations, industry, and schools to explore the evolution of planet Earth on their desktop.
Solid Earth
We describe a novel method implemented in the GPlates plate tectonic reconstruction software to i... more We describe a novel method implemented in the GPlates plate tectonic reconstruction software to interactively reconstruct arbitrarily high-resolution raster data to past geological times using a rotation model. The approach is based on the projection of geo-referenced raster data into a cube map followed by a reverse projection onto rotated tectonic plates on the surface of the globe. This decouples the rendering of a geo-referenced raster from its reconstruction, providing a number of benefits including a simple implementation and the ability to combine rasters with different geo-referencing or inbuilt raster projections. The cube map projection is accelerated by graphics hardware in a wide variety of computer systems manufactured over the last decade. Furthermore, by integrating a multi-resolution tile partitioning into the cube map we can provide on-demand tile streaming, level-of-detail rendering and hierarchical visibility culling, enabling researchers to visually explore essen...
Abstract The fixed hotspot hypothesis provides a useful reference frame for constraining absolute... more Abstract The fixed hotspot hypothesis provides a useful reference frame for constraining absolute plate motions. However, mounting observational evidence together with physical arguments is challenging the notion of the fixity of hotspots in a convecting mantle. It has been postulated that the Kerguelen hotspot was responsible for the formation of the Raj Mahal traps. However, existing plate reconstructions, and the assumed fixity of the hotspot, place Kerguelen around 1000km south of the Raj Mahal traps at the time of their formation ...
PloS one, 2016
The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' a... more The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' and open access, open source software tools. These innovations open up new avenues for how scientists communicate and share data and ideas with each other and with the general public. Here, we describe our efforts to bring to life our studies of the Earth system, both at present day and through deep geological time. The GPlates Portal (portal.gplates.org) is a gateway to a series of virtual globes based on the Cesium Javascript library. The portal allows fast interactive visualization of global geophysical and geological data sets, draped over digital terrain models. The globes use WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics and are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible with complete camera control. The globes include a visualization of a high-resolution global digital elevation model and the vertical gradient of the global gravity field, highlighting small-scale seafloor fabric such as...
Many reconstruction models for opening of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay between North America a... more Many reconstruction models for opening of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay between North America and Greenland incorporate poles of rotation derived using identifications of magnetic anomalies C28-C33 in the Labrador Sea. However, recent seismic and geological data suggest the crust in which these spreading anomalies have been interpreted is not oceanic crust; the magnetic anomalies may instead delineate igneous penetrations into thinned and fragmented crust within the continent-ocean transition zone. These data suggest a more seaward extension of extended continental material in the Greenland margin near the Davis Strait than assumed in previous full-fit reconstructions. These uncertainties are an important consideration for deriving full-fit reconstruction of this region and adjacent plates. Our study focuses on the full-fit configuration of Greenland and North America using an approach that considers continental deformation in a quantitative manner, in contrast to traditional mode...
Unpairing metamorphic belts: P-T paths and a tectonic model for the Ryoke Belt, southwest Japan, ... more Unpairing metamorphic belts: P-T paths and a tectonic model for the Ryoke Belt, southwest Japan, Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 16, 3-22. Engebretson, D. C., et al. (1985), Relative motions between oceanic and continental plates in the Pacific Basin, Special Paper, 206, 1-59. Hall, C. E., et al. (2003), Catastrophic initiation of subduction following forced convergence across fracture zones, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 212, 15-30. Lewis, J. C., and T. B. Byrne (2001), Fault kinematics and past plate motions at a convergent plate boundary: Tertiary shimanto belt, southwest Japan, Tectonics, 20, 548-565. Müller, R. D., et al. (2007), Long-term sea level fluctuations driven by ocean basin volume change, Nature, in review. Müller, R. D., et al. (1998), Asymmetric seafloor spreading expresses ridge-plume interactions, Nature, 396, 455-459. Nakanishi, M., et al. (1992), A new Mesozoic isochron chart of the northwestern Pacific Ocean: paleomagnetic and tectonic implications, Geop...
A comprehensive magnetic analysis of the Lachlan Orocline and Macquarie Arc, both located in the ... more A comprehensive magnetic analysis of the Lachlan Orocline and Macquarie Arc, both located in the Lachlan Orogen, eastern Australia has been undertaken to test the potential relative rotation of this block to the surrounding units. These results are compared with palaeomagnetic data from the region and a series of geologically constrained crustal-scale forward models of lithospheric magnetisation for the area, with focus on the large-scale structural components of the Lachlan Orocline. The forward model method treats each geological unit present in both the Macquarie Arc itself and the surrounding areas as independent parameterised stratigraphic units. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS) approach, known geological, structural and physical properties are used to produce a series of vertically integrated value grids. These grids are then used as input to model the regional magnetisation in the global scale magnetic field forward model.
Sedimentary basins capture Earth’s sea level, climate history, and the variation of the surface t... more Sedimentary basins capture Earth’s sea level, climate history, and the variation of the surface topography due to geodynamic, tectonic, and surface processes. They host a range of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources of critical importance for the continued functioning of modern society. The key to moving exploration into deeper basins in less accessible regions is to understand the interactions between surface processes, tectonic processes, and mantle convection. Indeed, continental interiors are severely affected by deep-mantle forces, including surface tilting and uplift/subsidence over pulsing mantle plumes, causing the creation or destruction of entire river systems and shallow seas. Hence, mantle flow, plate tectonics, and surface processes are linked through a complex web of thermal and mechanical feedback loops impossible to grasp through analogue modelling alone. If we are to model feedbacks between surface processes, lithospheric dynamics and mantle flow, ...
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2013
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 1990
ABSTRACT
Journal of Geophysical Research, 2011
Geophysical Journal International, 2004
Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
Published models for the plate tectonic evolution of the Western Indian Ocean suggest that the So... more Published models for the plate tectonic evolution of the Western Indian Ocean suggest that the Southern Mascarene Basin opened by oceanic crustal accretion between the continental margins of southwestern India and southeastern Madagascar. However, with the cessation of the Mascarene Basin spreading centre followed by a ridge jump resulting in the opening of the Carlsberg Ridge, almost all the traces of India-Madagascar divergence were carved away from the Indian Plate and attached to the African Plate. According to some recent studies, the Chain-Kairali Escarpment, a prominent feature on the southwestern continental margin of India, is possibly the only trace of India-Madagascar divergence that remained on the Indian Plate. But the exact conjugate correspondence of this feature on the Madagascar side is uncertain. Published plate tectonic reconstructions imply that the Vishnu Fracture Zone on the Indian side and the Mauritius Fracture Zone on the Madagascar side are aligned at chron C22ny (∼49.04 Ma). Based on the near collinearity of gravity anomaly trends, the Chain-Kairali Escarpment appears to be the landward extension of the Vishnu FZ. However, at chron C34ny (∼83.0 Ma), the Chain-Kairali Escarpment was in close proximity to the incipient Mahanoro Fracture Zone. In this study we investigate this incompatibility, using an up-to-date compilation of the tectonic elements from the conjugate regions of India and Madagascar and the latest available rotation parameters that describe India-Madagascar separation through a direct India-Seychelles-Madagascar plate circuit. Our revised plate reconstruction model suggests that the Chain-Kairali Escarpment was formed due to the strike-slip motion between the southeast coast of Madagascar and the then southwest coast of India during the initial stages of India-Madagascar breakup. The migration of the Chain-Kairali Escarpment from the proximity of the Mahanoro FZ and aligning with the Vishnu FZ was the result of several successive events. The first among those events was asymmetric crustal accretion in the Mascarene Basin due to ridge propagation, between chrons C34ny (83.0 Ma) to C33ny (∼73.62 Ma). The Chain-Kairali Escarpment and associated crustal weak zones offshore India appear to have facilitated subsequent initiation of the Mauritius FZ and its conjugate Vishnu FZ during a plate reorganization at about chron C33ny (∼73.62 Ma). The cessation of spreading in the Mascarene Basin and development of full extent of the Carlsberg Ridge, shortly after chron C27ny (60.92 Ma), resulted in the initiation of a long transform fault, coinciding with the Vishnu FZ, which connected the Carlsberg Ridge with the spreading centre of the Madagascar Basin. Therefore, the Vishnu FZ and the Chain-Kairali Escarpment are two independent features created during different episodes of evolution of the Western Indian Ocean and the Chain-Kairali Escarpment is not a landward extension of the Vishnu FZ.
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems
GPlates is an open-source, cross-platform plate tectonic geographic information system, enabling ... more GPlates is an open-source, cross-platform plate tectonic geographic information system, enabling the interactive manipulation of plate-tectonic reconstructions and the visualization of geodata through geological time. GPlates allows the building of topological plate models representing the mosaic of evolving plate boundary networks through time, useful for computing plate velocity fields as surface boundary conditions for mantle convection models and for investigating physical and chemical exchanges of material between the surface and the deep Earth along tectonic plate boundaries. The ability of GPlates to visualize subsurface 3-D scalar fields together with traditional geological surface data enables researchers to analyze their relationships through geological time in a common plate tectonic reference frame. To achieve this, a hierarchical cube map framework is used for rendering reconstructed surface raster data to support the rendering of subsurface 3-D scalar fields using graphics-hardware-accelerated ray-tracing techniques. GPlates enables the construction of plate deformation zones-regions combining extension, compression, and shearing that accommodate the relative motion between rigid blocks. Users can explore how strain rates, stretching/shortening factors, and crustal thickness evolve through space and time and interactively update the kinematics associated with deformation. Where data sets described by geometries (points, lines, or polygons) fall within deformation regions, the deformation can be applied to these geometries. Together, these tools allow users to build virtual Earth models that quantitatively describe continental assembly, fragmentation and dispersal and are interoperable with many other mapping and modeling tools, enabling applications in tectonics, geodynamics, basin evolution, orogenesis, deep Earth resource exploration, paleobiology, paleoceanography, and paleoclimate. Plain Language Summary The GPlates virtual globe software provides the capability to reconstruct geodata attached to tectonic plates to develop and modify models that describe how the plates and their boundaries have evolved through time. It allows users to deform plates and to visualize surface tectonics in the context of convecting mantle structure and evolution by importing seismic tomography models or outputs from geodynamic models. GPlates applications include tectonics, geodynamics, basin evolution, orogenesis, deep Earth resource exploration, paleobiology, paleoceanography, and paleoclimate. The software is enabling end-users in universities, government organizations, industry, and schools to explore the evolution of planet Earth on their desktop.
Solid Earth
We describe a novel method implemented in the GPlates plate tectonic reconstruction software to i... more We describe a novel method implemented in the GPlates plate tectonic reconstruction software to interactively reconstruct arbitrarily high-resolution raster data to past geological times using a rotation model. The approach is based on the projection of geo-referenced raster data into a cube map followed by a reverse projection onto rotated tectonic plates on the surface of the globe. This decouples the rendering of a geo-referenced raster from its reconstruction, providing a number of benefits including a simple implementation and the ability to combine rasters with different geo-referencing or inbuilt raster projections. The cube map projection is accelerated by graphics hardware in a wide variety of computer systems manufactured over the last decade. Furthermore, by integrating a multi-resolution tile partitioning into the cube map we can provide on-demand tile streaming, level-of-detail rendering and hierarchical visibility culling, enabling researchers to visually explore essen...
Abstract The fixed hotspot hypothesis provides a useful reference frame for constraining absolute... more Abstract The fixed hotspot hypothesis provides a useful reference frame for constraining absolute plate motions. However, mounting observational evidence together with physical arguments is challenging the notion of the fixity of hotspots in a convecting mantle. It has been postulated that the Kerguelen hotspot was responsible for the formation of the Raj Mahal traps. However, existing plate reconstructions, and the assumed fixity of the hotspot, place Kerguelen around 1000km south of the Raj Mahal traps at the time of their formation ...
PloS one, 2016
The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' a... more The pace of scientific discovery is being transformed by the availability of 'big data' and open access, open source software tools. These innovations open up new avenues for how scientists communicate and share data and ideas with each other and with the general public. Here, we describe our efforts to bring to life our studies of the Earth system, both at present day and through deep geological time. The GPlates Portal (portal.gplates.org) is a gateway to a series of virtual globes based on the Cesium Javascript library. The portal allows fast interactive visualization of global geophysical and geological data sets, draped over digital terrain models. The globes use WebGL for hardware-accelerated graphics and are cross-platform and cross-browser compatible with complete camera control. The globes include a visualization of a high-resolution global digital elevation model and the vertical gradient of the global gravity field, highlighting small-scale seafloor fabric such as...
Many reconstruction models for opening of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay between North America a... more Many reconstruction models for opening of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay between North America and Greenland incorporate poles of rotation derived using identifications of magnetic anomalies C28-C33 in the Labrador Sea. However, recent seismic and geological data suggest the crust in which these spreading anomalies have been interpreted is not oceanic crust; the magnetic anomalies may instead delineate igneous penetrations into thinned and fragmented crust within the continent-ocean transition zone. These data suggest a more seaward extension of extended continental material in the Greenland margin near the Davis Strait than assumed in previous full-fit reconstructions. These uncertainties are an important consideration for deriving full-fit reconstruction of this region and adjacent plates. Our study focuses on the full-fit configuration of Greenland and North America using an approach that considers continental deformation in a quantitative manner, in contrast to traditional mode...
Unpairing metamorphic belts: P-T paths and a tectonic model for the Ryoke Belt, southwest Japan, ... more Unpairing metamorphic belts: P-T paths and a tectonic model for the Ryoke Belt, southwest Japan, Journal of Metamorphic Geology, 16, 3-22. Engebretson, D. C., et al. (1985), Relative motions between oceanic and continental plates in the Pacific Basin, Special Paper, 206, 1-59. Hall, C. E., et al. (2003), Catastrophic initiation of subduction following forced convergence across fracture zones, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 212, 15-30. Lewis, J. C., and T. B. Byrne (2001), Fault kinematics and past plate motions at a convergent plate boundary: Tertiary shimanto belt, southwest Japan, Tectonics, 20, 548-565. Müller, R. D., et al. (2007), Long-term sea level fluctuations driven by ocean basin volume change, Nature, in review. Müller, R. D., et al. (1998), Asymmetric seafloor spreading expresses ridge-plume interactions, Nature, 396, 455-459. Nakanishi, M., et al. (1992), A new Mesozoic isochron chart of the northwestern Pacific Ocean: paleomagnetic and tectonic implications, Geop...
A comprehensive magnetic analysis of the Lachlan Orocline and Macquarie Arc, both located in the ... more A comprehensive magnetic analysis of the Lachlan Orocline and Macquarie Arc, both located in the Lachlan Orogen, eastern Australia has been undertaken to test the potential relative rotation of this block to the surrounding units. These results are compared with palaeomagnetic data from the region and a series of geologically constrained crustal-scale forward models of lithospheric magnetisation for the area, with focus on the large-scale structural components of the Lachlan Orocline. The forward model method treats each geological unit present in both the Macquarie Arc itself and the surrounding areas as independent parameterised stratigraphic units. Using a Geographical Information System (GIS) approach, known geological, structural and physical properties are used to produce a series of vertically integrated value grids. These grids are then used as input to model the regional magnetisation in the global scale magnetic field forward model.
Sedimentary basins capture Earth’s sea level, climate history, and the variation of the surface t... more Sedimentary basins capture Earth’s sea level, climate history, and the variation of the surface topography due to geodynamic, tectonic, and surface processes. They host a range of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon resources of critical importance for the continued functioning of modern society. The key to moving exploration into deeper basins in less accessible regions is to understand the interactions between surface processes, tectonic processes, and mantle convection. Indeed, continental interiors are severely affected by deep-mantle forces, including surface tilting and uplift/subsidence over pulsing mantle plumes, causing the creation or destruction of entire river systems and shallow seas. Hence, mantle flow, plate tectonics, and surface processes are linked through a complex web of thermal and mechanical feedback loops impossible to grasp through analogue modelling alone. If we are to model feedbacks between surface processes, lithospheric dynamics and mantle flow, ...
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 2013
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 1990
ABSTRACT
Journal of Geophysical Research, 2011
Geophysical Journal International, 2004