History of the Pacific superplume: Implications for Pacific paleogeography since the late proterozoic

We have reconstructed the paleogeography of continents, oceans and oceanic large igneous provinces (LIPs) since 1000 Ma in order to decode the history of the Pacific Superplume, using the most reliable recent data for accretional geology from orogens associated with ophiolites and greenstone belts, and of geochronologic and paleomagnetic data from each continent. From our reconstructions we have arrived at the following conclusions: (1) the Pacific Superplume was born at 750 Ma and broke-up the supercontinent Rodinia; (2) the African Superplume was born at 200 Ma and broke-up Pangea; (3) the Pacific Superplume was active episodically with culminations at 580-600 Ma, 280-230 Ma and 150-75 Ma; (4) during the formation of Rodinia much oceanic lithosphere from the Tethyan-Indian type ocean was subducted along paleo-trenches of proto-Grenville orogens along a V-shaped, double-sided convergent boundary around the continental lithosphere of Rodinia. These relations suggest that the massive volumes of lithosphere subducted under the Pacific-type orogens triggered the birth of the Pacific Superplume after 200 m.y. at the center of Rodinia.