The
structure and evolution of the North American Lithosphere: The Growth of
a Continent
ABSTRACT
An impressive amount of geologic and geophysical data are available
regarding the deep structure of the North American Continent. I take a
new approach to combining these data. The 3D density structure of the crust
is completely removed from the gravity anomaly map, yielding the "Mantle
Gravity Map", which contains clear and highly significant features.
However, lateral variations in mantle temperatures (hot western USA vs.
cold cratonic regions) dominate this map (due to thermal expansion). After
a thermal correction, the "Compositional Map of the North American Mantle"
is obtained. I interpret this map in terms of the evolution of the North
American Continent over the past 3.0 Ga.
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