Plate Reconstructions Using Stromatolite Heliotropism: Principles and Applications
| Autor: | J. P. Vanyo, T. M. Kusky |
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| Rok vydání: | 1991 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Journal of Geology. 99:321-335 |
| ISSN: | 1537-5269 0022-1376 |
| DOI: | 10.1086/629498 |
| Popis: | Fossilized columnar stromatolites and other microbialites, when heliotropic, incline toward averaged incident solar radiation and preserve information useful for plate reconstructions. Some fast growing small diameter living heliotropic microbialites form sinusoidal columns by recording seasonal changes in solar inclination. Others simply incline toward the equator. Fossilized heliotropic stromatolites have the same potential for recording information about past positions of the sun relative to the strata they are preserved in, and can be used to infer lines of paleolongitude (plane of column inclination and/or sinusoidal oscillation) and paleolatitude (amount of net inclination). To reconstruct past configurations of continents using heliotropic stromatolites the apparent deviation from vertical growth in individual columns is measured, corrected for refraction and strain, and used as a minimum paleolatitude. The plane perpendicular to beds and containing the inclined stromatolite columns is equated with... |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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