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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
Recent deformations of the deep continental root beneath southern Africa
Nature, Volume 375, No. 6526, Year 1995
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Description
SEISMIC anisotropy, manifested by the splitting of shear waves into two orthogonal polarizations, provides evidence for deformation in the Earth's upper mantle. Where such deformation has been inferred beneath Precambrian cratons, it has been interpreted either as related to recent plate motion1,2, or inherited from the Precambrian3,4. Here we present data from a portable seismograph array in the Kaapvaal craton of South Africa, which indicate that the inferred direction of mantle flow underneath the array is close to the direction of absolute plate motion for southern Africa since the end of the Jurassic period. Such an alignment has also been reported for the North American craton2, suggesting that the flow in both regions is related mainly to shearing of the sublithospheric mantle by the plate above. The old continental roots that are likely to exist in this depth range 5,6 must therefore be deformed by the plate motion, but the deformations are not strong enough to be seen in the presently available seismic tomography data. © 1995 Nature Publishing Group.
Authors & Co-Authors
Vinnik, L. P.
Russian Federation, Moscow
Schmidt Institute of Physics of the Earth of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Green, Rod W.E.
South Africa, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand
Nicolaysen, L. O.
South Africa, Johannesburg
University of the Witwatersrand
Statistics
Citations: 102
Authors: 3
Affiliations: 2
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/375050a0
ISSN:
00280836
Study Locations
South Africa