Journal article
Seismic and gravity constraints on plate flexure and mantle rheology along the whole Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain
- Abstract:
- The Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain is a hotspot-generated intraplate volcanic chain that has yielded key constraints on the rigidity of Earth’s tectonic plates. However, previous studies have shown significant variability in the effective elastic thickness, Te, a proxy for the long-term strength of the lithosphere, along the chain. While low Te (10-20 km) at the Emperor Seamounts and high Te (17-37 km) at the Hawaiian Ridge are expected because of their differences in volcano and plate age, the change between them appears abrupt and occurs in the vicinity of the bend in the chain. To investigate this variability, we estimated Te along 3000 profiles - spaced 2 km apart along the chain - from gravity and flexure modeling, and calibrated using constraints from deep seismic experiments carried out in 2018 and 2019. Here we show that, contrary to previous predictions, Te changes gradually along the chain and that weak zones can exist within the interior of a large, otherwise rigid, plate and may, we speculate, facilitate the initiation of intra-oceanic subduction in response, for example, to changes in plate motion and eventually lead to their break-up.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 6.4MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1038/s41467-025-65442-3
Authors
- Publisher:
- Springer Nature
- Journal:
- Nature Communications More from this journal
- Volume:
- 16
- Issue:
- 1
- Article number:
- 11013
- Publication date:
- 2025-12-02
- Acceptance date:
- 2025-10-14
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2041-1723
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
2299842
- Local pid:
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pubs:2299842
- Deposit date:
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2025-10-15
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Watts et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2025
- Rights statement:
- Copyright © 2025, The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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