Geologists ‘resurrection’ missing tectonic plate

The existence of a tectonic plate known as the Renaissance has long been the subject of debate among geologists, with some arguing that it was never real. Others say that it moved sideways and downward in the Earth’s crust between 50 and 100 million years ago in the Pacific margin.

A team of geologists from the University of Houston’s Natural Ledge Natural Science and Mathematics believes that lost plates have been found in northern Canada using existing mental tomography images similar to CT scans of the Earth’s interior. Findings published in the Geological Society of America bulletin can give geologists better predictions of volcanic hazards as well as mineral and hydrocarbon deposits.

“Volcanoes form on plate boundaries, and the more plates you have, the more volcanoes you have,” said Johnny Wu, an assistant professor of geology at the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. “Volcanoes also affect climate change. So, when you’re trying to model the Earth and understand how the weather has changed over time, you really want to know how many volcanoes have formed on Earth.”

A technique developed by Wu and Spencer Fuston, a third-year geology doctoral student, the UH Center for Tectonics and Tomography, was used to rebuild what looked like tectonic plates in the Pacific Ocean at the beginning of the Cenozoic era. The Earth’s rigid outer shell, or lithosphere, has broken down into tectonic plates, and geologists have always known that there were two plates in the Pacific Ocean at that time, called the Total and the Pleon. But there has been talk of a possible third plate, the Renaissance, which has created a special kind of volcanic belt along with Alaska and Washington state.

“We believe we have direct evidence that a resurgence plate exists. We are also trying to resolve and advocate a debate on which side our data supports.”

Using the 3-D Mapping Technological G, Fust used the technique of displaying slabs on mantle tomography images and extracting subapected plates before stretching them to their original shapes.

The boundaries of this ancient renaissance tectonic plate coincide well with the ancient volcanic belts of Washington State and Alaska when the earth’s surface was ‘raised’ and rebuilt, providing a link between the ancient Pacific Ocean and North American geological demand. The record, “Wu explained.