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Concordant sea‐floor spreading rates obtained from geochronology, astrochronology and space geodesy
Author(s) -
Baksi Ajoy K.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/93gl03534
Subject(s) - geology , earth's magnetic field , geodesy , geochronology , sedimentary rock , geophysics , magnetic anomaly , seabed , geodetic datum , tectonics , radiometric dating , plate tectonics , paleontology , seismology , magnetic field , oceanography , physics , quantum mechanics
Reversals of the Earth's magnetic field, allied to sea‐floor spreading, have left their imprint in the form of a magnetic tape recorder on the sea‐floor. It is demonstrated that the geomagnetic polarity time scale for the past few million years, derived utilizing (a) radiometric dates of magnetic field reversals trapped in subareal, igneous, rocks and (b) as derived from the Milankovitch forcing frequencies and their imprint in the sedimentary environment, are in good agreement. Further, sea‐floor spreading rates calculated from these results, are in substantial agreement with the rate of plate movement averaged over the last decade, as obtained by space geodetic measurements. Since the principles underlying these “dating” techniques are entirely different, it lends credence to the results obtained for sea‐floor spreading, arguably the most fundamental process in plate tectonics.