JOURNAL

OFGEOPHYSICAL
RESEARCH,
VOL.
102,
NO.B2,PAGES
3211-3214,
FEBRUARY
10,1997

Digitalisochrons
of the world'soceanfloor

R.DietmarMtiller,
•Walter
andJohnG. Sclate•
R.Roest,
2Jean-Yves
Royer,
•,3Lisa
M.Gahagan,
4

Abstract.
Wehave
created
adigital
agegridoftheocean
floor
withagridnode
interval
of6 arc
rain
using
aself-consistent
setofglobal
isochrons
and
associated
plate
reconstruction
poles.
The
age
ateach
gridnode
wasdetermined
bylinear
interpolation
between
adjacent
isochrons
inthe
-direction
ofspreading.
Agesforocean
floor
between
theoldest
identifi•
magnetic
anomalies
and
continental
crust
were
interpolated
byestimating
theages
ofpassive
continental
margin
segments
from
geological
data
and
published
plate
models.
Wehave
constructed
anagegridwitherror
esti-
mates
foreach
grid
cellasafunction
of(1)theerror
of• floor
ages
identified
from
magnetic
anomalies
along shiptracksandtheageofthecorresponding
gridcells
inouragegrid,
(2)thedis-
tance
ofagiven gridcelltothenearest
magnetic
anomaly
identification,
and(3)thegradient
ofthe
age
grid:
i.e.,larger
errorsareassociated
with
highage
gradients
atfracture
zonesorotheragedis-
cmtinuities.
Future
applications
ofthisdigital
gridinclude
studies
ofthethermal
andelastic
structure
ofthelithosphere,
theheat
loss
oftheEarth,
ridge-push
forces
through
time,
asymmetry
ofspreading,
andproviding
constraints
forseismic
tomography
andmantle
convection
models.

Introduction
fromstage
rotation
poles
foreach
isochron
time,keeping
one
Theageof theoceanflooris an importantparameter in the plate fixed. Then best fit continuous isochronswere
studyofplatetectonicprocesses. digitalagegrid constructed,
An accurate connectedby transforms,
in theframeworkof one
for many studies,includingplate kinematics, fixed
is essential plate[seealsoMtiIleretal., 1991].A complete setof
of platedrivingforces,mantledynamics,oceanfloor isochrons
studies forallconjugateplatepairswasderived byrotation
roughness,
andpaleoceanography. Severalanalogmapsof the of everyisochron to theirpresent-day
position.
ageof theoceanfloorhavebeencompiled usingmagnetic Construction ofa complete agegridalso requires
knowledge
anomalydata[e.g.,ScIateret al., 1981;Larsonet at., 1985]. of thepresentdayplateboundary geometry.Theboundaries
Adigital
versionof thelattermapwasproduced by Cazenave et shownin Plate 1 havebeencompiledbasedon a marine
a/.[1988],
ata gridintervalof 0.5 degrees(approximately 55 gravitygrid from Geosatexact repeatmission,Geodetic
kin).Ret.
entimprovements of magneticMission,
in identifications andERS-1satellitealtimetry data[Sandwell et al.,
anomalies
andplatekinematicmodels, aidedby 1994],bathymetric
especially data,andearthquake epicenters.
Thereis a
dense permita more substantialareaof oceanfloor that is olderthan the oldest
gravitydatafromsatellitealtimetry,
detailed
description
of thespreading andhaveinitiated mapped
process isochrons.In orderto estimateagesfor the oldest
theconstruction
of a moredetailed
agegrid. oceanfloorin oceanbasins
bounded bypassivemargins, we
assigned agesto continentalmarginsegments basedon
geological
dataand.published
platemodels.Theregional
OceanFloorIsochronsand Plate Boundaries boundaries
betweencontinentaland oceaniccrusthave been
Wehaveconstructed
a globalsetof isochrons
for theocean compiled
by MiitIerandRoest[1992](NorthandcentralNorth
basins
corresponding
tomagnetic 5, 6, 13, 18,21, Atlantic),Ntirnberg
anomalies andMatler[1991](SouthAtlantic),and
25,31,34, M0, M4, M10,M16, M21,andM25 based on a Royeretal. [1992]
(Indian
Ocean).Southof 60øS a dense
grid
globalplatereconstruction
model,magnetic anomaly of Geosat
Geodetic Missiondata[Sandwell
et al., 1994]has
identifications
andfracture
zones
[seealso eta/.,1992]. beenusedto betterlocateboundariesbetweencontinentaland
Royer
Thegeomagnetic
timescale
ofCandeandKent[1995]wasusedoceanic crustof theAntarcticcontinental
margin.
foranomalies
younger
thanchron34 (83Ma),thetimescale
from
Gradstein were Interpolation
et al. [1994]foroldertimes.Isochrons ofIsochronsandGridding
constructed
byplottingreconstructed magneticanomaly
and In order
tocreatea smooth
gridof ocean
flooragesthat
fracture
zone
picks,
aswellasselected
small
cixcles
computed
maintains
all sharpagediscontinuities
at fracture
zones,we
--•Departme--nt
New
South
ofGeology
Wales,
and
Australia.
ofSydney,first
Geophysics,
University createa setof densely
thatthespreading
interpolated
direction
between
isochrons.
two adjacent
Weassume
isochrons
is
2Geological
Survey
ofCanada,
Ottawa. givenby a constantstagepole of motion,derivedfromour
aG6osciences
Azur,
Villefranche
SurMet,France. platekinematicmodel.Wealsoassume thatthespreading
4In•tute
forGeophysics,
University
ofTexasatAustin. velocitybetween
twoadjacent
isochrons is constant,andthat
5Scripps
•ego.
Institution
ofOceanography,
University
ofCalifornia,
San consequentlythe age varies linearly in the directionof
spreading
on a given ridge flank. To simplify the
Copyright
1997
bythe
American
Geophysical
Union. calculations,
eachpairof adjacentisochronsis transformed
to
a coordinate
systemin whichthestagepoleof motionbetween
• number96JB01781. thetwoisochrons
is moved
ontothegeographic
northpole
0!48-0227/97/96
JB-01781
$09.00 [Roest et al., 1992]. Then intermediateisochronswere
3211
 21562202b, 1997, B2, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/96JB01781 by Cochrane Colombia, Wiley Online Library on [01/06/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
3212 MOLLER ET AL.: DATA AND ANALYSIS NOTE

30 ø 60 ø 90' 120' 150' 150' 210 ø 240' 270' 30Oø 330'

mmmmm mmme mmmm mm mm mm eton mmm

a)
60'

30-[
o.I

-30 .

Chron 13 18 21 25 31 34 M0 M4 M10N M16 M21 M25

0.0 9.7 20.1 33.1 40.1 47.9 5:5.9 67.7 83.5 120.4 126.7131.9 139.6 147.'7 154.3

b)

30'

-30'

.60 ø

30' 60' 90' 120' 150' lgo' 210' 240' 270' 300' 330'

i 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

PlateI. (a)Colorshaded
reliefmap,
illuminated
fromthenorthwest,
displaying
theages oœ
theoceanHoor. (b)
Griddedestimates
forageuncertainties
including
(1)theerrorofocean
flooragesidentified
frommagneticanomalies
along
shiptracks
andtheageofthecorresponding
gridcells
inourage
grid,
(2)thedistance
ofagiven
gridcelltothe
nearest
magnetic
anomaly
identification,
and(3)large
gradients
oftheagegridnearfracture
zones.
 21562202b, 1997, B2, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/96JB01781 by Cochrane Colombia, Wiley Online Library on [01/06/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
MOLLER ET AL.: DATA AND ANALYSISNOTE 3213

linearly
interpolated
along
plateflowlines.Thisis equivalentcreatea gridcontainingthe distanceof a given grid cell to the
tointerpolation
alongsmallcirclesabout
thestage pole. The nearestdatapoint,rangingfrom zero at the magneticanomaly
completesetof isochrons
foreachstagewassubsequently datapoints to 10 at distancesof !000 km and larger. We
rotated
backintothegeographic reference
frame.Thiswas smooth this Is'ridusing a cosine arch filter (5 degreesfull
doneforeachisochronpaironeachplatepair. width) andaddthe resultto the initial splined grid of age
Tointerpolate
theagesontoa regular grid,weassume that errors.
theisochrons are continuous,whichis implemented by Fracturezones are usually several tens of km wide,
densely
interpolating
between observationpointsalongeach containinghighly fracturedand/orserpentinizedoceancrust.
isochron.
A minimum routineis usedto obtainage Age estimatesmay be uncertainespeciallynear large-offset
curvature
valueson a regulargrid at a resolutionof 0.1 degrees, fracturezones,whicharemoreseverelyaffectedby changesin
equivalent
to 6 arcmin. Areas
of the oceanfloorwith spreading direction than small-offset fracture zones.
insufficient wereblankedout in the grid. We Consequently,our age estimatesalong large-offsetfracture
datacoverage
datafrom selectedback-arcbasins, where data zones may be more uncertain than at small-offset fracture
included
coverage
is sufficient
andavailable
to us. Theresolutionof zonesor on "normal" oceancrust. Large-offsetfracturezones
ourgridfortheseareas
is typicallyreduced by a factorof 10 areeasilyidentifiedin the age grid by computingthe gradient
withrespect
totheoceanic in back-arc of the agegrid. We identify the age gradientsassociatedwith
grid,i.e.,theresolution
basinsdoesnot exceed1 degree,andprovidesmerelya rough medium-to large-offsetfracturezones, set the gradientsof
es"umate
of theagedistributionin thesebasins. The resulting "normal" ocean crust to zero, smooth the result with a 3x3
gridisshown in Plate1a. movingaveragefilter, and scale the grid to range from one to
two. After multiplying the error grid with the smoothedage
gradientsalong fracturezones, we have not alteredthe errors
Accuracy associated with "normal" ocean floor, and increased the errors
Theaccuracy
of the age gridvariesconsiderably
because
of at fracturezonesby a factorbetween1 and 2, dependingon the
thespatiallyirregulardistributionof ship trackdatain the magnitudeof the age gradient. The resulting grid of age
oceans. Other sources of errors are given by our chosen uncertainties is shown in Plate lb.

spacingof isochronsas listed before,betweenwhich we

interpolated
linearly. Thesestagesareespeciallylong during Conclusions
longtimeintervalswithoutchangesin the polarity of the
Earth's
magneticfield suchas the Cretaceous
MagneticQuiet The digital age grid presentedhere is the fkst of its kind,
Zonefrom about118 to 83 Ma. We assumethat age grid errorsbecause(!) in the pastagesof the oceanfloor have only been
on the distanceto the nearestdata points and the available on analog maps, with the exception of a digitized
depend
to fracturezones. In orderto estimatethe accuracy version of Larson et ad.'s [1985] age map producedby
proximity
ofouragegrid,we construct a gridwith age-errorestimatesfor Cazenave
et al. [1988] at a relatively coars6grid intervalof
eachgridcell dependent on (1) the error of oceanfloor ages 0.5 degrees,(2) our grid is basedon a self-consistent global
identified
from magneticanomaliesalong ship tracksandthe plate model, and (3) it is accompaniedby a grid estimating the
ageof the correspondinggrid cells in our age grid, (2) the uncertaintiesof the griddedages. A shortcoming of our error
di•anceof a givengridnodeto the nearestmagneticanomaly analysisat presentis that it does not includethe uncertainties
identification,
and (3) the gradientof the age grid: i.e., larger of the plate rotations. We hope to includethis parameterin
errorsare associatedwith high age gradientsacrossfracture the next age grid generation.
zonesor other age discontinuities. The latter also reflects
that,because of the interpolationprocess,uncertaintyin the
Appendix
magnetic anomalywill inducelargerageerrorsin regionsof
slowspreading ratesthanin regionsof fast spreadingrates. The digital age and age-error grids as well as background
We first computethe age differencesbetween -30,000 informationon detailsof the data sourcesandplate model the
interpretedmagneticanomaly ages and the ages from our age grid is basedon can be obtained through the World Wide
digital
agegrid,andinvestigate the sizeanddistribution of the
Web siteof the University of Sydney Departmentof Geology
resultingageerrors. We find that the majority of errors are
and Geophysics at http://www.es.su.oz. au/agegrid/agegdd.html.
smallerthan1 m.y. anderrorslarger than 10 m.y. aremostly
Information on how to obtain posters of the age grid can be
duetoerroneously
labeledor interpreted
datapoints.Therefore found at http://gdcinfo.agg.nrcan.gc.ca/app/agegrid.html and
wesetanupperlimit for acceptable
errorsas 10 m.y. As a http://www.ngdc.
noaa.gov/mgg/announcements/announce_crustage.html
lower
limitwearbitrarily
choose0.5 m.y., sincewedonot
expectto resolve errors smaller than 0.5 m.y. given the
Acknowledgments. This work was made possibleby the
uncertainty
in the timescales
used. We grid the remainingage contributorsto theformer PaleoceanographicMappingProject(POMP,
.errors
by usingcontinuous curvaturesplinesin tension. Universityof Texas,Austin)whoreleaseddatathat servedas partial
Theconstraints ontheagesin ourglobalagegridgenerally input for constructing the isochrons,POMP industrysponsors for
decreasewithincreasing distance to the nearestinterpretedfinancial
industry
support
sponsors
to R.D.M.,L.M.G. and J-Y.R.,andby the PLATF.•
through support
to L.M.G. Construction
of theagegrid
magnetic anomalydata point. Areaswithout interpreted was startedat the ScrippsInstituteof Oceanography while the senior
magnetic
ß anomaliesincludeeast-westspreadingmid-ocean authorwassupported by a graduateanda postdoctoral
fellowship.JYR
r•gesin lowlatitudes sucha theequatorial Atlanticocean, acknowledges support by fl•eCNRS(CentreNationalde la Recherche
-wherethereinanent magneticfieldvectorsarenearlyparallel Scientifique).The GMT softwaresystemfromP. Wesse!andW.H.F.
Smithwas invaluablein performingthe age error analysis,and for
• themid-oceanridge and causevery small magneticproducingthe figures.Carefulreviewsby AnneCazenave,Roger
'aaoma!ies,
andareaswithsparse
datacoverage
suchas some Larson, and JamesOgg helped clarify the manuscript. UMR
remo,•areasin the southern ocean. In order to addressthe G•osciencesAzur contribution54, Geological Survey of Canada
"tectonic
reconstruction
uncertainties"
for theseareas,we contribution 1996353.
 21562202b, 1997, B2, Downloaded from https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/96JB01781 by Cochrane Colombia, Wiley Online Library on [01/06/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
3214 MOLLER ET AL.: DATA AND ANALYSIS NOTE

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