现今绝对板块运动

根据热点假设,热点对于中间层是固定的。相对热点的板块运动叫做绝对板块运动。绝对板块运动模型可以通过反演火山链传播的速率和走向数据以确定相对板块运动在角速度空间的原点来得到。利用一组近来（0～7．8Ma）全球分布的热点的迁移速率和走向数据,结合板块运动模型NNR—NUVELIA,已研制出一个叫做APM2的现今绝对板块运动模型。按照该模型,太平洋板块围绕60．063°S、102．210°E处的极以（0．8330°±0．0133°）／Ma的速率运动,非洲板块围绕46．849°N、44．372°W的极以（0．1015°±0．0134°）／Ma的速率运动,南极板块的运动则以46．871°N、146．942°E为极,速率为（0．0846°±0．0177°）／Ma,欧亚板块的运动更慢,极为27．291°N、171．925°W,速率为（0．0655°±0．0206°）／Ma。这一模型表明,岩石圈相对深部地幔有一个以49．423°S、90．625°E为极,速率为（0．1983°±0．0135°）／Ma的净旋转。表明太平洋热点同印度-大西洋热点不一致,显示太平洋热点的运动也不一致。为了分析和比较,还给出了仅用全球分布的热点的走向数据和仅用印度一大西洋热点的走向数据得到的板块绝对运动的角速度。     

Multibeam bathymetry and sidescan imaging of the Rivera Transform–Moctezuma Spreading Segment junction, northern East Pacific Rise: New constraints on Rivera–Pacific relative plate motion

To better understand the recent motion of the Pacific plate relative to the Rivera plate and to better define the limitations of the existing Rivera–Pacific plate motion models for accurately predicting this motion, total-field magnetic data, multibeam bathymetric data and sidescan sonar images were collected during the BART and FAMEX campaigns of the N/O L'Atalante conducted in April and May 2002 in the area surrounding the Moctezuma Spreading Segment of the East Pacific Rise, located offshore of Manzanillo, Mexico, at 106°16′W, between 17.8°N and 18.5°N. Among the main results are: (1) the principle transform displacement zone of the Rivera Transform is narrow and well defined east of 107o15′W and these azimuths should be used preferentially when deriving new plate motion models, and (2) spreading rates along the Moctezuma Spreading Segment should not be used in plate motion studies as either seafloor spreading has been accommodated at more than one location since the initiation of seafloor spreading in the area of the Moctezuma Spreading Segment, or this spreading center is not a Rivera–Pacific plate boundary as has been previously assumed. Comparison of observed transform azimuths with those predicted by the best-fit poles of six previous models of Rivera–Pacific relative motion indicate that, in the study area, a significant systematic bias is present in the predictions of Rivera–Pacific motion. Although the exact source of this bias remains unclear, this bias indicates the need to derive a new Rivera–Pacific relative plate motion model.     

地球表层运动和变形的GPS描述

利用IERS所公布的分在全球各大构造板块上的 6 5 7个GPS、SLR和VLBI连续观测站在ITRF框架下的速度场资料 ,采用刚体板块运动 +板块整体均匀应变 +板块内局部不均匀应变的变形分析模型 ,研究了全球各主要板块的运动和变形。结果表明板块的整体变形在统计上均不显著。在一级近似上板块间表现出来的整体相对运动显著 ,根据这些运动参数定量研究了板块边界的相对运动的大小和性质。认为地球的双重不对称变形可能主要表现为南北、东西两半球所含的板块边界的运动方式不同所致。板块内的局部不均匀变形明显 ,为板块内部可能应划分成次一级的活动地块提供了佐证。由于观测点分布的密度和均匀性不足 ,本文未能就板内不均匀变形作进一步的深入讨论。     

Structure and development of the Sagami trough and the Boso triple junction

The Sagami trough is located at the particular plate margin where the Izu forearc is subducted underneath the Honshu forearc. At its southeastern end, the world's only known TTT-type triple junction (Boso triple junction) has developed. Several different kinds of basins occur in different segments along the Sagami trough and at the triple junction. The bathymetric, geologic, and geophysical data obtained during the Kaiko Project and from additional studies are summarized together with our onland studies. We suggest that the right-lateral oblique plate motion formed an eduction margin in the Sagami basin, while a normal subduction margin and an oblique subduction margin have been formed in the Middle Sagami trough basin. These tectonic phenomena resulted from the long-lasting compressional covergence between the Philippine Sea plate and Eurasian plate since the early or middle Miocene. The North basin on the northeasternmost margin of the Philippine Sea plate near the Boso triple junction has developed as a stretched basin due to the westward motion of the Philippine Sea plate with respect to the Eurasian plate.     

Possible effects of collisions on plate motions

A large-scale collision at a plate boundary is expected to play an important role not only in the deformation at the boundary but also in the motion of the plate carrying the buoyant material to be accreted. Possible changes in rates and directions of such motions may be calculated provided that certain assumptions are made about the nature of the driving forces. In this model we shall assume basically that:

1. (1) an oceanic plate is driven by slab pull and ridge push, being resisted by basal asthenospheric drag and slab resistance; and

2. (2) because of detachment, slab pull is lost upon collision.

If, however, the calculated motion following collision has a convergent component at the boundary, a new subduction zone, with an increasing slab pull force, forms seaward of the accreting buoyant material.Calculations were first made on an idealized planar octagonal plate. Results indicated that, so long as the scale of collision is limited, changes in motion take place but the motion returns to the initial state. However, for large-scale collisions, the plate motion suffers a large directional change, which also changes the nature of some boundaries, and hence the motion approaches a new steady-state motion irreversibly. Calculations were then conducted on an idealized Philippine Sea plate on a spherical earth. For a sizable collision along the Taiwan-Philippine-Mindanao boundary, this boundary and perhaps the Bonin-Mariana boundary, may become a transform fault provided that slab pull-ridge push is the driving force. These results provide some support to Uyeda-McCabe model (1983) of episodic spreading of the Philippine Sea basins, as well as the predominance of strike-slip motion along collision boundaries. Finally, in agreement with prior studies, subduction of a ridge system, assumed to have been located along the southwestern rim of the Paleo-Pacific plate, was shown to be consistent with the change in direction of motion of that plate at 43 m.y.B.P.Calculations conducted in this study show that predicted changes are model dependent so that comparisons with observed or inferred motions may be useful as a means of estimating the relative importance of the various potential driving forces.     

Hotspots in the Southern Oceans — an absolute frame of reference for motion of the Gondwana continents

The geometry and geochronology of aseismic ridges and oceanic islands in the southern oceans provide a good test of the proposition that hotspots remain fixed over long periods of time; that is, motion of an order of magnitude less than the relative motion between plate pairs. In most cases it is concluded that inter-hotspot movement cannot be discerned for the period 100 m.y. to Present and that widely distributed hotspots in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans provide a frame of reference for plate motions following the disintegration of Gondwanaland, which is independent of paleomagnetism. This frame of reference is “absolute” in that it gives the motion of the lithosphere with respect to the mantle (= hotspots). The absolute motion model indicates that Africa and Antarctica are now moving only very slowly, that there has been significant relative movement between East and West Antarctica since the Cretaceous, and prescribes the relative motion between the Somali and African plates.     

Porphyroblast inclusion-trail orientation data: eppure non son girate*!

Extensive examination of large numbers of spatially orientated thin sections of orientated samples from orogens of all ages around the world has demonstrated that porphyroblasts do not rotate relative to geographical coordinates during highly non-coaxial ductile deformation of the matrix subsequent to their growth. This has been demonstrated for all tectonic environments so far investigated. The work also has provided new insights and data on metamorphic, structural and tectonic processes including: (1) the intimate control of deformation partitioning on metamorphic reactions; (2) solutions to the lack of correlation between lineations that indicate the direction of movement within thrusts and shear zones, and relative plate motion; and (3) a possible technique for determining the direction of relative plate motion that caused orogenesis in ancient orogens.     

Is northern Honshu a microplate?

Seismic slip vectors along the Japan Trench, the eastern margin of the Japan Sea and the Sagami Trough are compared with global relative plate motions (RM2, Minster and Jordan, 1978) to test a new hypothesis that northern Honshu, Japan, is part of the North American plate. This hypothesis also claims that the eastern margin of the Japan Sea is a nascent convergent plate boundary (Kobayashi, 1983; Nakamura, 1983).Seismic slip vectors along the Japan Trench are more parallel to the direction of the Pacific-North American relative motion than that of the Pacific-Eurasian relative motion. However, the difference in calculated relative motions is too small avoid to the possibility that a systematic bias in seismic slip vectors due to anomalous velocity structure beneath island arcs causes this apparent coincidence. Seismic slip vectors and rates of shortening along the eastern margin of the Japan Sea for the past 400 years are also consistent with the relative motion between the North American and Eurasian plates calculated there. Seismic slip vectors and horizontal crustal strain patterns revealed by geodetic surveys in south Kanto, beneath which the Philippine Sea plate is subducting, indicate two major directions; one is the relative motion between the North American and Philippine Sea plates, and the other that between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates.One possible interpretation of this is that the eastern margin of the Japan Sea may be in an embryonic stage of plate convergence and the jump of the North American-Eurasian plate boundary from Sakhalin-central Hokkaido to the eastern margin of the Japan Sea has not yet been accomplished. In this case northern Honshu is a microplate which does not have a driving force itself and its motion is affected by the surrounding major plates, behaving as part of either the Eurasian or North American plate. Another possibility is that the seismic slip vectors and crustal deformations in south Kanto do not correctly represent the relative motion between plates but represent the stresses due to non-rigid behaviors of part of northern Honshu.     

Changes in Relative Plate Motion during the Isan Orogeny (1670-1500 Ma) and Implications for Pre-Rodinia Reconstructions

Foliation inflexion/intersection axes(FIAs)preserved within porphyroblasts that grew throughout Isan orogenesis reveal significant anticlockwise changes in the direction of bulk horizontal shortening between 1670 and 1500 Ma from NE-SW,N-S,E-W to NW-SE.This implies an anticlockwise shift in relative plate motion with time during the Isan orogeny.Dating monazite grains amongst the axial planar foliations defining three of the four FIAs enabled an age for the periods of relative plate motion that produced these structures to be determined.Averaging the ages from monazite grains defining each FIA set revealed 1649±12 Ma for NE-SW shortening,1645±7 Ma for N-S shortening,and 1591±10 Ma for that directed E-W.Inclusion trail asymmetries indicate shear senses of top to the SW for NW-SE FIAs and dominantly top to the N for E-W FIAs,reflecting thrusting towards the SW and N.No evidence for tectonism related to early NE-SW bulk horizontal shortening has previously been detected in the Mount Isa Inlier.Amalgamation of the Broken Hill and possibly the Gawler provinces with the Mount Isa province may have taken place during these periods of NE-SW and N-S-directed thrusting as the ages of tectonism are similar.Overlapping dates,tectonic,metamorphic,and metallogenic similarities between eastern Australia(Mount Isa and Broken Hill terranes)and the southwest part of Laurentia imply a most probable connection between both continental masses.Putting Australia in such position with respect to North America during the Late-Paleo-to-Mesoproterozoic time is consistent with the AUSWUS model of the Rodinia supercontinent.     

Evolution of the Eurasian Basin and its implications to the motion of Greenland along Nares Strait

A combined analysis of the recently collected aeromagnetic data from the Eurasian Basin with the magnetic data from the Labrador Sea, the Norwegian-Greenland Sea and the North Atlantic yields a plate kinematic solution for the Eurasian Basin which is consistent with the solution for the North Atlantic as a whole. It shows that the Eurasian Basin and Norwegian-Greenland Sea started to evolve at about anomaly 25 time, though active seafloor spreading did not start in either of these regions until anomaly 24 time. It further shows that the spreading in the Eurasian Basin has been a result of motion only between the North American and Eurasian plates since the beginning, with the Lomonosov Ridge remaining attached to the North American plate. The relative motion among the North American, Greenland and Eurasian plates as obtained from the plate kinematics of the North Atlantic shows that from Late Cretaceous to Late Paleocene (anomaly 34 to 25) Greenland moved obliquely to Ellesmere Island. It is suggested that most of this motion was taken up within the Canadian Arctic Islands resulting in little or no motion along Nares Strait between Greenland and Ellesmere Island. From Late Paleocene to mid-Eocene (anomaly 25-21) Greenland continued to move obliquely, resulting in a displacement of 125 km along and of 90 km normal to the Nares Strait. From mid-Eocene to early Oligocene another 100 km of motion took place normal to the Strait, which correlates well with the Eurekan Orogeny in the Canadian Arctic Island. During these times the relative motion between Greenland and Svalbard (Eurasian plate) was mainly strike-slip with a small component of compression. The implication of the resulting motion between the North American and the Eurasian plates onto the Siberian platform are discussed.     

运动方向的线状指示物与斑变晶中叶理交切轴(FIAs)的比较及其与板块相对运动方向的关系(英文)

过去还无人指出过板块相对运动的方向与缓倾斜叶理、逆断层和断层上的线状指示物有直接关系,这是因为缓倾斜构造上的运动方向只和变厚了的造山地层的重力塌陷有关,它们和俯冲板块传递给仰冲板块的推力没有关系。缓倾斜叶理上的运动方向的线状指示物和斑状变晶中的叶理弯曲或叶理交切轴（FIA）并无直接关系,这是因为FIA的指向受缓倾斜叶理和斑状变晶边缘上产生的、近乎垂直的叶理之间的交切面控制。在班状变晶边缘上形成的、近乎垂直的叶理在基质中的方位可能在较大范围内变动,因为它们会在稍早期间形成的叶理再活化作用影响下发生转动或遭到破坏。斑状变晶边缘上近乎垂直的叶理,与形成于早期或晚期的缓倾斜叶理的交线,在后期的生长中被圈闭在班状变晶里,此交线规定出了FIA的方位,而与叶理上的运动方向无关。从美国佛蒙特州阿巴拉契亚山脉采集的FIA资料指出,在125km×35km的一片地区内,在该地岩层所发生的多次变形中,从未曾使早期形成的FIA组的方位发生变动。这种情况要求：后来的每一代褶皱都是由于渐进的。总体不均匀缩短作用造成的。这种情况表明：FIA保存着原始的运动方向,此方向未因以后的变形而转动。非洲板块与欧洲板块的相对运动方向和由阿尔卑斯期变质岩中叶理交切轴（FIAs）所指示     

Tectonic evolution of the Pacific Ocean since 74 ma

A recent re-evaluation of the Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic sea-floor spreading data in the eastern Pacific has allowed us to make a new interpretation of the timing and sequence of the tectonic events which produced the present configuration of the plates (Whitman and Harrison, 1981; Whitman, 1981). Rotation parameters specifying the relative motion between all pairs of plates in the ocean basin have been calculated from the best fit of oceanic magnetic anomalies, with additional input from bathymetry and crustal ages of the Deep Sea Drilling Project sites. The rotation parameters for the relative motion between the Pacific and Antarctic plates are taken from Weissel et al. (1977) and the continental rotation parameters are from Barron et al. (1981).Plate motions have been determined back to 74 Ma. This time marks the initiation of spreading at the Pacific-Antarctic Ridge which caused the separation of the Campbell Plateau from Antarctica (Barron et al., 1981). Thus, this time is the earliest fix on the position of the Pacific plate relative to the continents surrounding the Pacific Ocean basin using sea-floor spreading. Since it is not possible to derive quantitative information about the relative motion between two plates separated by a trench, all rotations for the oceanic plates of the Pacific basin have been calculated relative to the Pacific plate and then relative to North America through the plate circuit: Pacific-Antarctica-Africa-North AmericaSince we also know the relative position of North America with respect to the other continents, we can show the relative position of the Pacific plate and the other oceanic plates with respect to all of the continental plates surrounding the Pacific Ocean basin.     

Kinematics of Convergence and Deformation in Luzon Island and Adjacent Sea Areas:2-D Finite-Element Simulation

The Luzon Island is a volcanic arc sandwiched by the eastward subducting South China Sea and the northwestward subducting Philippine Sea plate.Through experiments of plane-stress,elastic,and 2-dimensional finite-element modeling,we evaluated the relationship between plate kinematics and present-day deformation of Luzon Island and adjacent sea areas.The concept of coupling rate was applied to define the boundary velocities along the subduction zones.The distribution of velocity fields calculated in our models was compared with the velocity field revealed by recent geodetic (GPS) observations.The best model was obtained that accounts for the observed velocity field within the limits of acceptable mechanical parameters and reasonable boundary conditions.Sensitivity of the selection of parameters and boundary conditions were evaluated.The model is sensitive to the direction of convergence between the South China Sea and the Philippine Sea plates,and to different coupling rates in the Manila trench,Philippine trench and eastern Luzon trough.We suggest that a change of±15° of the di rection of motion of the Philippine Sea plate can induce important changes in the distribution of the computed displacement trajectories,and the movement of the Philippine Sea plate toward azimuth330° best explains the velocity pattern observed in Luzon Island.In addition,through sensitivity analysis we conclude that the coupling rate in the Manila trench is much smaller compared with the rates in the eastern Luzon trough and the Philippine trench.This indicates that a significant part of momentum of the Philippine Sea plate motion has been absorbed by the Manila trench;whereas,a part of the momentum has been transmitted into Luzon Island through the eastern Luzon trough and the Philippine trench.     

青藏滇缅印尼歹字型构造再认识

青藏滇缅印尼歹字型自中新世中期澳大利亚板块与东南亚大陆开始碰撞逐渐形成。上新世早期演化成为具有统一形变、运动和动力体系的构造。其与澳大利亚以及西南太平洋地区的连环式旋卷构造是一个构造整体,可以归入一个构造体系。探索认识这一巨型构造体系因其与青藏高原构造地貌的演变,全球大洋温盐环流的重大调整密切相关。其导致了区域乃至影响了全球的气候环境剧变。认识李四光教授的科学思想和构造体系需要沿着其思想脉络,从更广阔的范围和科学发展的前沿思考和探索。      

巽他弧北部掸邦高原地壳变形、长期块体运动和发震过程:来自大地测量研究结果的约束

本文通过约束大地测量研究来探索掸邦高原及其周围地区现今的地壳变形和长期块体运动,以期提供该地区地球动力学和相关地震危险状况的最新状态。掸邦高原在横向上由西侧的萨干(Sagaing)断裂和东侧的红河断裂这两条主要断裂包围。其中,青藏高原地壳的韧性流挤压被认为是该夹层变形单元变形的主要因素。大地测量清楚地表明,萨干断裂和红河断裂段分别具有约18 mm/a和约45 mm/a右旋运动走滑速率。此外,掸邦高原内部断层体系大地滑移累积表现为1213 mm/a的整体左旋运动速率。我们认为相对于刚性巽他古陆,研究区域的形变分布和长期块体运动主要受区域书架型断层作用控制,其原因是掸邦高原两侧的主断裂(萨干断裂和红河断裂)存在差异性断裂活动。     

The impossible Galapagos connection: geometric constraints for a near-American origin of the Caribbean plate

Geometric constraints derived from the present plate configuration and from plate motion vectors of the Caribbean as well as the North and South American plates within a hotspot reference frame indicate that the thickened Caribbean oceanic crust was formed in a near-American position rather, than at the Galapagos hotspot. A lateral displacement of more than 1000 km between the Caribbean plate and the North and South American plates is related to differences in plate motion velocities during the Cenozoic era. The differential motion between the Caribbean and the American plates results from trench-parallel mantle flow as a response to the westward motion of the American plates.     

Creation of the Cocos and Nazca plates by fission of the Farallon plate

Throughout the Early Tertiary the area of the Farallon oceanic plate was episodically diminished by detachment of large and small northern regions, which became independently moving plates and microplates. The nature and history of Farallon plate fragmentation has been inferred mainly from structural patterns on the western, Pacific-plate flank of the East Pacific Rise, because the fragmented eastern flank has been subducted. The final episode of plate fragmentation occurred at the beginning of the Miocene, when the Cocos plate was split off, leaving the much reduced Farallon plate to be renamed the Nazca plate, and initiating Cocos–Nazca spreading. Some Oligocene Farallon plate with rifted margins that are a direct record of this plate-splitting event has survived in the eastern tropical Pacific, most extensively off northern Peru and Ecuador. Small remnants of the conjugate northern rifted margin are exposed off Costa Rica, and perhaps south of Panama. Marine geophysical profiles (bathymetric, magnetic and seismic reflection) and multibeam sonar swaths across these rifted oceanic margins, combined with surveys of 30–20 Ma crust on the western rise-flank, indicate that (i) Localized lithospheric rupture to create a new plate boundary was preceded by plate stretching and fracturing in a belt several hundred km wide. Fissural volcanism along some of these fractures built volcanic ridges (e.g., Alvarado and Sarmiento Ridges) that are 1–2 km high and parallel to “absolute” Farallon plate motion; they closely resemble fissural ridges described from the young western flank of the present Pacific–Nazca rise. (ii) For 1–2 m.y. prior to final rupture of the Farallon plate, perhaps coinciding with the period of lithospheric stretching, the entire plate changed direction to a more easterly (“Nazca-like”) course; after the split the northern (Cocos) part reverted to a northeasterly absolute motion. (iii) The plate-splitting fracture that became the site of initial Cocos–Nazca spreading was a linear feature that, at least through the 680 km of ruptured Oligocene lithosphere known to have avoided subduction, did not follow any pre-existing feature on the Farallon plate, e.g., a “fracture zone” trail of a transform fault. (iv) The margins of surviving parts of the plate-splitting fracture have narrow shoulders raised by uplift of unloaded footwalls, and partially buried by fissural volcanism. (v) Cocos–Nazca spreading began at 23 Ma; reports of older Cocos–Nazca crust in the eastern Panama Basin were based on misidentified magnetic anomalies.There is increased evidence that the driving force for the 23 Ma fission of the Farallon plate was the divergence of slab-pull stresses at the Middle America and South America subduction zones. The timing and location of the split may have been influenced by (i) the increasingly divergent northeast slab pull at the Middle America subduction zone, which lengthened and reoriented because of motion between the North America and Caribbean plates; (ii) the slightly earlier detachment of a northern part of the plate that had been entering the California subduction zone, contributing a less divergent plate-driving stress; and (iii) weakening of older parts of the plate by the Galapagos hotspot, which had come to underlie the equatorial region, midway between the risecrest and the two subduction zones, by the Late Oligocene.     

亚洲大陆主要活动块体的现今构造应力数值模拟

亚洲大陆晚新生代和现代构造变形以活动地块为主要特征,表现为在统一构造格局下不同地块间具有不同的运动方式和速度。为了研究这些具有不同运动学性质块体间的相互作用以及构造变形特征,基于亚洲大陆的总体构造格局构建了二维有限元模型。根据模拟结果,对比已知GPS数据、震源机制解以及地质调查数据等,定量分析了大陆内部主要活动地块构造应力场的分布特征,并探讨了影响亚洲大陆现今构造变形特征的主要因素。结果表明：在我国的西部陆块内,由于周边一系列近EW向弧形活动构造带的存在,导致其内部次级块体运动速率的衰减,从而进一步导致应力环境的变化,由青藏中部的挤压-拉张环境逐渐转变为塔里木、天山地区的完全挤压环境;在西伯利亚地块和印度板块的联合挤压作用下,华北地块上地壳的应力表现为较弱的挤压环境,而在该种应力环境下块体内部伸展构造的成因很可能与其深部的动力学环境有关;华南地块的运动方向与台湾造山带相反,从而形成一个秦岭-大别造山带以南的较强烈的挤压-拉张区;在印度-澳大利亚板块和菲律宾俯冲板块的联合挤压作用下,巽他地块作为华南地块和印支地块的逃逸窗口,表现出以婆罗洲、南海为中心近圆弧形的弱挤压区以及环绕挤压区外缘挤压-拉张区的应力分布特征。     

Architecture of the Central Andes—a compilation of geoscientific data along a transect at 21°S

Based on numerous geoscientific data a section through the Central Andean active continental margin at 21°S has been compiled which shows the structure of the South American upper plate and the downgoing Nazca Plate.     

New visualizations of global tectonic plate motions and plate boundary interactions

Clear understanding of detailed lithospheric plate motions has been impeded by lack of a suitable means of graphical representation. A series of coloured global maps are presented that reveal more detail in the patterns of both absolute and relative global plate motions. The use of continuous colour to represent velocities overcomes the limitations of earlier maps that used isolated vectors at selected points to indicate plate velocities. Velocity magnitudes and directions for entire surfaces of plates were computed at a resolution of 0.5°, and are shown on two separate maps. Relative motions between plates were decomposed into their shear and normal components, and are plotted on separate maps. Continuous colour is again used to indicate both the directions and magnitudes of sinistral/dextral and convergent/divergent motions for all plate boundaries. A final map of normalized velocity magnitudes for all plates reveals a global, fast 'belt' of plate motion that parallels a great circle aligned with the fastest portion of the Pacific Plate and orthogonal to the East Pacific Rise.