Mountain belt growth inferred from histories of past plate convergence: A new tectonic inverse problem

摘要: Past plate motions display a range of variability, including speedups and slowdowns that cannot easily be attributed to changes in mantle related driving forces. One key controlling factor for these variations is the surface topography at convergent margins, as previous modeling shows topographic load large mountain belts consumes significant amount forces available tectonics by increasing frictional between downgoing overriding plates. Here we use this insight pose new tectonic inverse problem infer growth from record past convergence. We introduce automatic differentiation method, which technique produce derivative code free truncation error source transformation forward model. apply method publicly global thin-shell model generate simple relate Nazca/South America convergence gross Andes belt. test search algorithm an optimal paleotopography 3.2 m.y. ago well-known history Our results are excellent agreement with published estimates Andean support notion strong feedback belt © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.