Sea-floor spreading and continental drift

TLDR

A geometrical model of the Earth's surface is represented as rigid blocks in relative motion. The study aims to reconstruct Cenozoic sea‑floor spreading history using this model. The model yields a simplified, complete, and consistent picture of global surface motion from sea‑floor spreading data, computing differential movement vectors in compressive belts to reconstruct spreading history. The reconstructed spreading history closely matches a previously proposed pattern that explains ocean sediment distribution.

Abstract

A geometrical model of the surface of the earth is obtained in terms of rigid blocks in relative motion with respect to each other. With this model a simplified but complete and consistent picture of the global pattern of surface motion is given on the basis of data on sea-floor spreading. In particular, the vectors of differential movement in the ‘compressive’ belts are computed. An attempt is made to use this model to obtain a reconstruction of the history of spreading during the Cenozoic era. This history of spreading follows closely one previously advocated to explain the distribution of sediments in the oceans.