A viable Labrador Sea rifting origin of the Northern Appalachian and related seismic anomalies
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract The Northern Appalachian Anomaly (NAA) is a prominent low-seismic-velocity zone, ~400 km in diameter, in the asthenosphere beneath New England (northeastern USA). Previous studies interpreted this shallow feature, occurring at a depth of ~200 km, as a thermal anomaly tied to edge-driven convection along the North American continental margins. Those studies recognized, however, that upwelling here is highly unusual given that the passive margin has been tectonically quiescent for ~180 m.y. We propose an alternative model, based on geologic observations, geotectonic reconstructions, and geodynamic simulations, that the anomaly instead represents a Rayleigh-Taylor instability linked to the breakup of the distant Labrador Sea continental margin. A Labrador Sea origin at breakup, ca. 85–80 Ma, would imply the migration of a chain of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities at a rate of ~22 km/m.y., close to expected rates from geodynamic models. A migrating-instability origin for the anomaly can reconcile its spatial characteristics, depth profile, and position near a long-inactive continental margin. A corollary is that the north-central Greenland anomaly, a mirror-image of the NAA, also potentially originated at the time of breakup. Further, The Central Appalachian Anomaly may fit this model if it represents an early-stage instability linked to rifting onset in the Labrador Sea. The NAA and other associated anomalies viably represent a legacy of continental rifting and breakup along the distant Labrador Sea margins.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".