Nuvel-1

Nuvel-1 is a widely cited plate motion model developed in the early 1990s that provides angular velocities for rigid plates relative to a fixed reference frame. The model was produced by researchers associated with University of California, San Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and collaborators who used marine magnetic anomaly charts, fracture zone azimuths, and transform fault data to estimate plate rotations relevant to the Pacific Plate, North American Plate, Nazca Plate, Caribbean Plate, and other major lithospheric plates.

Discovery and Background

Nuvel-1 emerged from efforts at institutions including Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, and United States Geological Survey to synthesize marine geophysical observations compiled during programs such as Ocean Drilling Program and Deep Sea Drilling Project. Influential contemporaries and datasets included work by W. Jason Morgan, John Tuzo Wilson, Frederick Vine, Drummond Matthews, and compilations used in the Plate Tectonics Revolution. The project built on conventions set by international bodies like the International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth’s Interior and drew on global compilations similar to those from the National Geophysical Data Center and International Seismological Centre.

Methods and Data

Nuvel-1 relied on marine magnetic anomaly identifications, fracture zone trace directions, and transform fault azimuths collected from campaigns by research vessels affiliated with Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Analysts compared observed isochron picks and age models from the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale and correlated anomalies with chron calibrations developed by groups around Cande and Kent and researchers at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. The inversion used least-squares fitting techniques analogous to methods applied in studies by P. Molnar and M. H. Gellert, and exploited the Euler pole formalism pioneered by W. J. Morgan and formalized in numerical frameworks used at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Caltech. Data inputs also referenced plate boundary definitions from compilations resembling those of the Global Seismographic Network and geodetic constraints emerging from early Very Long Baseline Interferometry and Global Positioning System campaigns.

Tectonic Model and Parameters

Nuvel-1 provides angular velocities (Euler poles and rotation rates) for plates such as the Pacific Plate, North American Plate, South American Plate, African Plate, Eurasian Plate, Indian Plate, Australian Plate, Antarctic Plate, Nazca Plate, Cocos Plate, Caribbean Plate, Philippine Sea Plate, Scotia Plate, Arabian Plate, and Somali Plate. The model parameterizes relative motions using Euler vectors defined by pole latitude, pole longitude, and angular rotation rate, comparable in form to later models like the NUVEL-1A and those from REVEL and HS3 projects. Nuvel-1's rotations were applied to reconstruct boundaries including mid-ocean ridges such as the East Pacific Rise, transform systems like the San Andreas Fault relative motions, and convergent margins including the Peru–Chile Trench and the Java Trench.

Applications and Implications

Researchers used Nuvel-1 in paleogeographic reconstructions that interfaced with studies of Cenozoic plate reorganizations, volcanic arcs such as the Aleutian Arc, and basin evolution in regions like the Gulf of Mexico and East African Rift. The model informed tectonic synthesis in works addressing Mantle convection hypotheses, slab rollback scenarios at the Lesser Antilles Arc, and kinematic constraints for mantle tomography projects by groups at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. Nuvel-1 rotations were incorporated into seismic hazard assessments for plate boundary zones including the Cascadia Subduction Zone, the Chile trench region, and the Sumatra-Andaman segment prior to the 2004 event, and were used to compare with geodetic velocity fields from GPS networks deployed by agencies like the United States Geological Survey and regional institutions such as Geoscience Australia and the European Space Agency.

Criticisms and Revisions

Subsequent work identified limitations in Nuvel-1 stemming from assumptions of plate rigidity, the fixed-frame choice, and the quality and distribution of marine magnetic picks. Critiques were raised by researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University who emphasized discrepancies with contemporary GPS and VLBI observations and with time-dependent models developed at NOAA and in the REVEL family of models. These criticisms led to revised compilations such as NUVEL-1A, regional finite rotation sets from MORVEL and PB2002, and time-dependent reconstructions advanced by groups at University of Texas at Austin and University of Bremen. Debates remain active in the literature represented by authors publishing in journals like Journal of Geophysical Research, Geophysical Research Letters, and Earth and Planetary Science Letters over the most appropriate reference frame choices and the magnitude of non-rigid deformation in diffuse plate boundary regions.

Category:Plate tectonics models