Tectonic plates 'weaker than previously thought,' say scientists

Study co-author Lars Hansen, Associate Professor of

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Rock and Mineral Physics in Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, said: "The strength of tectonic plates has been a major target of research for the past four decades. For plate tectonics to work, plates must be able to break to form new plate boundaries. Significant effort has gone into measuring the strength of the key olivine-rich rocks that make up plates using laboratory experiments.

"Unfortunately, those estimates of rock strength have been significantly greater than the apparent strength of plates as observed on Earth. Thus, there is a fundamental lack of understanding of how plates can actually break to form new boundaries. Furthermore, the estimates of rock strength from laboratory experiments exhibit considerable variability, reducing confidence in using experiments to estimate rock properties."

The new research, published in the journal Science Advances, uses a technique known as 'nanoindentation' to resolve this discrepancy and explain how the rocks that make up tectonic plates can be weak enough to break and form new plate boundaries.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-tectonic-plates-weaker-previously-thought.html#jCp