Home – Home – Jornals – Russian Geology and Geophysics 2005 number 7

The position of mantle plumes detected from geophysical data has been correlated to Late Cenozoic and prerift geology and to the present-day lithospheric structure. Quantitative estimates of horizontal lithospheric stress were obtained for viscous drag produced by plume material spreading laterally over the asthenosphere and for the potential energy stored in the asthenospheric upwarp beneath the Baikal rift. The development of the upwarp is responsible for tensile stress in the lithosphere sufficient to induce normal faulting and rifting. The plumes apparently supply hot mantle material into the upwarp, otherwise it would inevitably degrade by cooling and would be unable to evolve as a gravity instability. The Baikal rift owes its origin to both the activity of plumes and the existence of prerift lithospheric structures whose orientation relative to far-field forces associated with the India-Eurasia collision did not conflict with rifting-related extension.