Tectonic delamination of the Pacific lithosphere

This paper presents data on the structure of some segments of the Pacific lithosphere that bear signs of its tectonic delamination. This tectonic phenomenon is inherent not only to the young slow-spreading Atlantic and Indian oceans but also to the ancient fast-spreading Pacific Ocean, where tectonic delamination of the lithosphere has been established beneath seamounts, in fault zones and between them, immediately beneath the East Pacific Rise, within small separate plates in the eastern part of the ocean, in the Northwest Pacific Basin, and beneath marginal swells that border deep trenches along the western periphery of the Pacific.