Volcano spacing, fractures, and thickness of the lithosphere

doi:10.1016/0012-821X(74)90159-9

Earth and Planetary Science Letters

Volume 21, Issue 3, February 1974, Pages 235-252

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-821X(74)90159-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

Both “hot-spot” type and possibly island-arc volcanoes may form at the intersections of fractures whose spacing is near the thickness of the lithosphere and increases with increasing thickness. An approximate equality between layer thickness and spacing of major fractures observed in some sedimentary rocks and clay cake models may thus extend to the “mega-joints” that have fractured the lithosphere and controlled volcano spacing on the earth, and possibly on Mars. If the hot-spot fractures are interpreted as due to shear, many hot-spot fracture systems suggest roughly north-south least principal stress, or, alternatively in some instances, a 90° rotation of this pattern.

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Volcano spacing, fractures, and thickness of the lithosphere

Abstract

Tectonophysics

Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

Deep-sea Res.

Icarus

Mafic and ultramafic rocks

Widths of modern arc-trench gaps proportional to past duration of igneous activity in associated magmatic arcs

J. Geophys. Res.

Volcanoes in the Sea

Hawaiian-Emperor chain and its relation to Cenozoic circum-Pacific tectonics

Geol. Soc. Am.

Geology and petrology of the Galapagos Islands

Geol. Soc. Am. Mem.

Evidence for global synchronism in mantle plume convection, and possible significance for geology

Nature

A possible origin of the Hawaiian Islands

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Bull. Am. Assoc. Petrol. Geol.

A new interpretation of the geology of Iceland

Geol. Soc. Am. Bull.

The floor of the North Pacific Ocean

Geogr. Rev.

Xenoliths in the Honolulu Volcanic Series

J. Petrol.

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Phil. Trans. R. Soc.

Mid-plate tectonics

Nature

Trenches

Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands

Vestiges of the Molten Globe

Earth-Lore

Regelmässigkeit der Abstände Vulkanischer Eruptions Zentren

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Geology of the State of Hawaii

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Upper mantle structure: are the low velocity layers thin?

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