How supercontinents and superoceans affect seafloor roughness

Joanne M. Whittaker (), R. Dietmar Müller, Walter R. Roest, Paul Wessel and Walter H. F. Smith
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Joanne M. Whittaker: Earthbyte Group, School of Geosciences, Building F09, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
R. Dietmar Müller: Earthbyte Group, School of Geosciences, Building F09, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
Walter R. Roest: Ifremer, Centre de Brest, BP 70, 29280 Plouzané, France
Paul Wessel: SOEST, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, USA
Walter H. F. Smith: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland 20910, USA

Nature, 2008, vol. 456, issue 7224, 938-941

Abstract: Seafloor topography: taking the rough with the smooth Whether the seafloor is rough or smooth can have a considerable influence on the circulation and mixing of heat in the ocean and on the dissipation of eddy kinetic energy. The role of seafloor spreading rates in controlling oceanic basement topography is well known. Now a global analysis of seafloor roughness derived from marine gravity data reveals that residual roughness anomalies remain over large swaths of ocean floor: Atlantic ocean floor that formed over mantle previously overlain by the Pangaea supercontinent is anomalously smooth, whereas ocean crust formed above Pacific superswells retains the predicted basement roughness. These results highlight a fundamental difference in the nature of large-scale mantle upwellings below supercontinents and superoceans and provide a framework for reconstructing the seafloor of ancient oceans.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.1038/nature07573

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