近日，美国波士顿学院Alexandre Janin团队实现了从拓扑数据分析全球板块重组的地球动力学。相关论文于2025年8月20日发表在《自然—地球科学》杂志上。
地球的岩石圈被分割成相对于彼此和地幔运动的构造板块，遵循一种随时间演变的动态平衡。偶尔会发生突然的运动变化，通常会导致区域尺度的板块重构，并可能导致全球尺度的事件，影响所有主要板块的运动。由于板块构造理论的几何性质和保存下来的运动学变化的稀缺性，识别和理解这种全球性的板块重组已被证明颇具挑战性。
研究组将类地全球地幔对流与拓扑数据分析相结合，表明全球板块重组事件可能产生于地幔-岩石圈相互作用。与区域变化不同，在这些罕见的全球性事件中，整个板块网络在全球尺度上通过板块边界的形成和破坏而转向新的动态平衡，从而影响整个地幔的动力学。这些事件代表了耦合的地幔-板块系统中两个稳定状态之间的转变。他们的发现表明，地球可能在百万年前始新世中期经历了类似的全球构造重组。这种新方法为从全球地球动力学模型中揭示地幔-岩石圈相互作用提供了一个定量框架。
附：英文原文
Title: Geodynamics of a global plate reorganization from topological data analysis
Author: Janin, Alexandre, Coltice, Nicolas, Chamot-Rooke, Nicolas, Tierny, Julien
Issue&Volume: 2025-08-20
Abstract: Earth’s lithosphere is fragmented into tectonic plates that move relative to each other and the mantle, following a dynamic equilibrium that evolves over time. Sporadically, abrupt kinematic changes occur that typically lead to regional-scale plate reconfigurations, and hypothetically to global-scale events, affecting the motion of all major plates. Identifying and understanding such global plate reorganizations has proven challenging because of the geometric nature of plate tectonic theory and the scarcity of preserved kinematic changes. Here we combine Earth-like global mantle convection with topological data analysis to show that global plate reorganization events can emerge from mantle–lithosphere interactions. Unlike regional changes, during these rare global events, the entire plate network shifts to a new dynamic equilibrium by the formation and destruction of plate boundaries at global scale, affecting the dynamics of the entire mantle. Such events represent transitions between two stable states in the coupled mantle–plates system. Our findings suggest that Earth may have experienced a similar global tectonic reorganization during the mid-Eocene around 47million years ago. Our new approach provides a quantitative framework to unveil mantle–lithosphere interactions from global geodynamic models.
DOI: 10.1038/s41561-025-01772-7
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-025-01772-7