Right-lateral active faulting between southern Baja California and the Pacific plate: The Tosco-Abreojos fault

Abstract Declining oxygen concentrations in the deep ocean, particularly in areas with pronounced oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), are a growing global concern related to global climate change. Its potential impacts on marine life remain poorly understood. A previous study suggested that the abundance of a diverse suite of mesopelagic fishes off southern California was closely linked to trends in midwater oxygen concentration. This study expands the spatial and temporal scale of that analysis to examine how mesopelagic fishes are responding to declining oxygen levels in the California Current (CC) off central, southern, and Baja California. Several warm-water mesopelagic species, apparently adapted to the shallower, more intense OMZ off Baja California, are shown to be increasing despite declining midwater oxygen concentrations and becoming increasingly dominant, initially off Baja California and subsequently in the CC region to the north. Their increased abundance is associated with warming near-surface ocean temperature, the warm phase of the Pacific Decadal oscillation and Multivariate El Niño-Southern Oscillation Index, and the increased flux of Pacific Equatorial Water into the southern CC.

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Small-scale mantle convection system and stress field under the Pacific plate

Physics of The Earth and Planetary Interiors ◽

10.1016/0031-9201(76)90095-9 ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 212-217 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Han-Shou Liu ◽

Edward S. Chang ◽

George H. Wyatt

Keyword(s):

Stress Field ◽

Mantle Convection ◽

Pacific Plate ◽

Small Scale ◽

The Pacific

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A Western Panorama, 1849-1875: The Travels, Writings and Influence of J. Ross Browne on the Pacific Coast, and in Texas, Nevada, Arizona and Baja California, as the first Mining Commissioner, and Minister to China

Journal of American History ◽

10.2307/1894843 ◽

1967 ◽

Vol 54 (2) ◽

pp. 409

Author(s):

Edwin R. Bingham ◽

David Michael Goodman

Keyword(s):

Baja California ◽

Pacific Coast ◽

The Pacific

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Unusual earthquakes in the Gulf of Alaska and fragmentation of the Pacific Plate

Geophysical Research Letters ◽

10.1029/gl015i013p01483 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 15 (13) ◽

pp. 1483-1486 ◽

Cited By ~ 44

Author(s):

J. C. Lahr ◽

R. A. Page ◽

C. D. Stephens ◽

D. H. Christensen

Keyword(s):

Gulf Of Alaska ◽

Pacific Plate ◽

The Pacific

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On the enigmatic birth of the Pacific Plate within the Panthalassa Ocean

Science Advances ◽

10.1126/sciadv.1600022 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (7) ◽

pp. e1600022 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Lydian M. Boschman ◽

Douwe J. J. van Hinsbergen

Keyword(s):

Triple Junction ◽

Tectonic Evolution ◽

Plate Boundary ◽

Pacific Plate ◽

Plate Tectonic ◽

Point Location ◽

Marine Magnetic Anomalies ◽

The Pacific ◽

History Of ◽

Ridge System

The oceanic Pacific Plate started forming in Early Jurassic time within the vast Panthalassa Ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangea, and contains the oldest lithosphere that can directly constrain the geodynamic history of the circum-Pangean Earth. We show that the geometry of the oldest marine magnetic anomalies of the Pacific Plate attests to a unique plate kinematic event that sparked the plate’s birth at virtually a point location, surrounded by the Izanagi, Farallon, and Phoenix Plates. We reconstruct the unstable triple junction that caused the plate reorganization, which led to the birth of the Pacific Plate, and present a model of the plate tectonic configuration that preconditioned this event. We show that a stable but migrating triple junction involving the gradual cessation of intraoceanic Panthalassa subduction culminated in the formation of an unstable transform-transform-transform triple junction. The consequent plate boundary reorganization resulted in the formation of a stable triangular three-ridge system from which the nascent Pacific Plate expanded. We link the birth of the Pacific Plate to the regional termination of intra-Panthalassa subduction. Remnants thereof have been identified in the deep lower mantle of which the locations may provide paleolongitudinal control on the absolute location of the early Pacific Plate. Our results constitute an essential step in unraveling the plate tectonic evolution of “Thalassa Incognita” that comprises the comprehensive Panthalassa Ocean surrounding Pangea.

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