A schematic highlighting the ocean-plate formation, cooling and destruction as part of the planet’s global mantle convection driven by the temperature gradient between its hot deep interior and the cold surface environment. Ocean-Plate Tectonics is the concept that describes not only the horizontal surface motion of the oceanic plate (grey arrow), but also highlights the pull from its subducted portion as the main driver (green arrow), distinguishes the oceanic plate (dark brown) from its continental counterpart, acknowledges the plate–mantle coupling that induces characteristic regional mantle-flow patterns (black flow lines), and describes the dynamics of the oceanic plate as part of the larger framework of global mantle convection that transports heat out of the interior (light-red arrow) due to the heat gradient between the planetary interior and outer space.
- Creator: Fabio Crameri
- This version: 22.09.2022
- License: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Specific citation: This graphic by Fabio Crameri from Crameri et al. (2019) is available via the open-access s-Ink.org repository.
- Related reference: Crameri, F., C.P. Conrad, L. Montési, and C.R. Lithgow-Bertelloni (2019), The dynamic life of an oceanic plate, Tectonophysics, 760, 107-135, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2018.03.016
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