Seismic evidence for a fossil mantle plume beneath South America and implications for plate driving forces

A teleseismic travel-time study reveals the presence of a fossil plume in the deep upper mantle beneath Brazil, which has apparently remained geographically fixed with respect to the overly-ing continent despite thousands of kilometres of plate motion. This result implies that the upper mantle and lithosphere beneath South America have remained coupled since the breakup of Gondwanaland and may provide an answer to the long-standing question of what forces drive continental plates.

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