Tectono~hysjcs, 35 (1976) 183-199 183

0 Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam - Printed in The Netherlands

STRESS ACCUMULATION IN THE LITHOSPHERE

D.L. TURCOTTE and E.R. OXBURGH

Department of Geological Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. (U.S.A.)
Department of Geology, University of Oxford, Oxford (England)
(Submitted October l&1975; accepted for publication February 3, 1976)

ABSTRACT

Turcotte, D.L. and Oxburgh, E.R., 1976. Stress accumulation in the lithosphere. In: O.L.
Anderson and B.A. Bolt (editors), Theory and Experiment Relevant to Geodynamic
Processes. Tectonophysics, 35 (l-3): 183-199.

It is shown that stress can accumulate in the lithosphere for lo’-lo9 years. It is hypothe
esized that intraplate ruptures caused by tensional stresses are responsible for intraplate
volcanism, seismicity, and tectonics. There are a number of mechanisms leading to the ac-
cumulation of stress in the lithosphere. Because the earth is an oblate spheroid, changes in
latitude of the surface plates cause membrane stresses. Changes in temperature cause
thermal stresses. Addition or removal of overburden generates stress. The driving mecha-
nism for plate tectonics results in stress. And stresses are generated by changes in crustal
thickness. Oceanic island chains such as the Hawaiian-Emperor are attributed to thermal
stresses in the cooling, contracting oceanic lithosphere. Localized centers of continental-
margin volcanism in the central and south Atlantic are attributed to a combination of
thermal stresses and stresses due to changes in crustal thickness. Continental volcanism
such as in the East African Rift system is attributed to membrane stresses. It is concluded
that tensional fracturing of the lithosphere is a more likely explanation for intraplate vol-
canism than deep mantle plumes.

INTRODUCTION

Prior to plate tectonics, mountain building and seismicity were attributed

primarily to stress accumulation in the earth. One hypothesis stated that
major erogenic zones were due to the thermal stresses generated by a cool-
ing, contracting earth. It is now recognized that thermal convection within
the earth’s mantle is primarily responsible for mountain building, seismicity,
and volcanism at plate margins. However, a si~ific~t fraction of the ob-
served tectonic activity remains unexplained.
Major mountain building occurs away from plate margins. An example is
the Hawaiian Islands. Recent volcanism has occurred throughout much of
Africa, also in Eastern Australia. Attempts have been made to explain these
phenomena by an extension of the basic plate-tectonics hypothesis. The hy-
pothesis of deep mantle plumes invokes mantle convection and the subse-
184

quent pressure release melting to explain all sources of volcanism.

We argue that there is simply too much recent volcanism to be explained
in this manner and propose that intraplate volcanism is due to tensional fail-
ures of the lithosphere. Wherever the state of stress in the surface plates leads
to a tensional failure magma penetrates the lithosphere causing volcanism.

STRESS ACCUMULATION

In order for stresses in the lithosphere to cause tensional failures it is nec-

essary for these stresses to accumulate over geological time. That is the stres-
ses cannot be relaxed by plastic flow. The most striking evidence against the
relaxation of stress over geological times is the presence of mountains. With-
out elastic stress topography would disappear. The association of gravity
anomalies with old geological structures, for example the mid-continent grav-
ity high in the central United States, shows that elastic stresses do not relax
in 108-log years. Although there is ample evidence that elastic stresses are
not fully relaxed on geological time scales it can be argued that partial relax-
ation may occur to relieve high levels of stress. Studies of the bending of the
oceanic lithosphere at ocean trenches show that this is not the case. These
studies also provide quantitative information on the elastic behavior of the
lithosphere.
The presence of a topographic high seaward of many ocean trenches has
been known for some time. A typical trench profile across the Bonin trench
is given in Fig. 1. This trench profile has been corrected for age variation and
variations in sediment thickness (Caldwell et al., in preparation). It was
shown by Walcott (1970a) and Hanks (1971) that the topographic high
(known as a forebulge) could be explained by the bending of an elastic plate
with a hydrostatic restoring force. Assuming that the lithosphere behaves as
a uniform elastic plate of thickness h with an applied vertical force and bend-
ing moment at the trench the vertical displacement of the surface w is given
by:

(1)
with :
114
7r Eh3
xb = 2 3(1- v2)(p, - Pwk I

where x is the horizontal distance from the point where the surface crosses
the reference depth seaward of the trench, xi-, is the distance from this point
to the forebulge, E is Young’s modulus, v Poisson’s ratio, pm mantle density,
pw water density, and g the acceleration of gravity. This theoretical topog-
raphy is compared with the Bonin profile in Fig, 1. Good agreement is ob-
tained without applying a large h orizontal force. Taking E = 6.5 . 10” dyn/
 185

x, KM
I
100 200

Fig. 1. Comparison of the observed topography over the Bonin trench (SlO and
NAVOCEANO data published with permission) with the elastic theory given in eq. 1.

cm2,v= 0.25, pm = 3.4 gm/cm, and pw = 1.0 gm/cm3 the thickness of the
elastic plate is found to be 28 km. The m~imum bending stress is 7.6 kbar.
The presence of the forebulge is evidence that the oceanic lithosphere be-
haves elastically on the time scale of movement through the elastic zone, say
300 km. If the plate is moving at 6 cm/year the time scale is 5 m.y. Rela-
tively old oceanic lithosphere is ordinarily taken to have a thickness of 80--
100 km. This thickness is the transition from a solid to a fluid rheology. The
thickness of 28 km deduced from the bending gives the fraction of the
oceanic lithosphere that behaves elastically.
The upper part of the lithosphere adjacent to a trench has tensional stress
due to the convex bending. It is likely that this tensional stress can be trans-
mitted only at depths where the hydrostatic pressure is equal to or greater
than the tensional stress. For a tensional stress of 6 kbar this depth is about
20 km, at shallower depths normal faulting is expected. This would explain
the seismicity and block faulting often observed seaward of the trench axis.
We have shown that the elastic thickness is 28 km, this indicates that the
lithosphere behaves elastically between the depths of about 20 and 50 km.
The lower limit is the boundary between elastic and plastic rheologies, at the
greater depths and higher temperatures elastic stresses are relaxed by plastic
flow on geological time scales.
Further evidence for the elastic behavior of the lithosphere comes from
the presence of forebulges when the lithosphere is loaded by volcanic islands.
Walcott (1970b) showed that this occurred at Hawaii. The presence of fore-
bulges adjacent to the Emperor seamount chain (Watts and Cochran, 1974)
is evidence that elastic stresses are not relaxed on a time scale of 40 m.y.
We conclude that stresses in the lithosphere may build up over long peri-
ods of time. The present state of stress at any point on the earth’s surface
may be the result of several episodes of stress generation. Sykes and Sbar
(1973) have argued that the intraplate state of stress is primarily due to the
driving forces of plate tectonics. We wish to point out that there are other
sources of stress which are at least as important, and are probably more im-
portant than the driving forces in contributing to intraplate stresses.
186

SOURCES OF STRESS

There are many sources of stress in the lithosphere. Some of the more im-
portant ones will be discussed here. As long as the lithosphere behaves elas-
tically the problem is linear and stresses are additive. The near-surface stress
is the sum of the various contributions. For the oceanic lithosphere the state
of stress should be considerably simpler than in continental regions. The oce-
anic lithosphere goes through a well-defined tectonic cycle and has a relative-
ly uniform composition and structure. A large fraction of the continental
lithosphere has been through several tectonic cycles resulting in zones of
weakness and compositional and structural variations.

The driving mechanism

The driving mechanism for plate tectonics must contribute to the stress
distribution in the lithosphere. The forces on a plate include a pull from the
descending lithosphere at a subduction zone, a push due to gravitational
sliding off an ocean ridge, and traction forces from convection cells in the
upper mantle. Intraplate forces such as the resistance to lateral sliding on the
San Andreas fault also contribu~. High levels of stress should be generated
by continental collisions, an example is the collision between the Asian and
Indian plates now occurring in the Himalayas.
Forsyth and Uyeda (1975) have shown that the forces on the descend-
ing lithosphere dominate the driving mechanism. This implies that the state
of stress due to the driving mechanism in plates with extensive subduction
zones (i.e. the Pacific and Nazca plates) should be predominantly in tension.
Since the African plate has primarily ocean ridges on three sides and is par-
ticipating in a continental collision on the north, the forces associated with
the driving mechanism (a push at ridges and at collision zones) should lead to
compressional stresses in the African plate. However, Africa is well-known for
tensional tectonics, in particular the East African Rift system. This implies
that there are other sources of stress in the African plate.

Membrane stresses

If the earth was a sphere the surface plates could move about without de-
formation. However, the surface of the earth (the geoid) is, to a good approxi-
mation, an oblate spheroid with an ellipticity E = 0.00335. Surface plates
which change latitude or rotate must deform in order to conform to the
geoid. Since the lithosphere is thin compared to the radius of the earth the
necessary deformation induces membrane stresses; these membrane stresses
are tensional and compressional stresses which are uniform across the thick-
ness of the plate as long as the plate can be treated as a uniform elastic mem-
brane. Bending moments can be neglected.
If a plate moves toward the equator the principal radii of curvature of the
 187

plate decrease. This puts the outer part of the plate into compression and the
inner part into tension. If a plate moves away from the equator the principal
radii of curvature of the plate increase. This puts the outer part of the plate
into tension and the inner part into compression.
The distribution of membrane stresses in circular surface plates that
change latitude has been determined by Turcotte (1974a). Accepting the
Mises-Hencky-Huber criteria for failure the relevant shear stress at any point
in the circular plate is given by:

urn = -$j (sin27 - sin2y0)( 744 - 4$2& + 48)

where 4 is the angle subtended by the center of the plate and the point
where the stress is determined, &, is the angle subtended by the center and
edge of the plate, y is the latitude of the plate, y. is the latitude of the plate
when it was in an unstressed state.
The role of membrane stresses in causing the East African Rift has been
discussed by Oxburgh and Turcotte (1974). The African plate and an equiv-
alent circular plate are shown in Fig. 2. For this circular plate $. = 46” and
its center is at a latitude y = 7”S, the African plate has moved about 20”
northward in the last 100 m.y. (see Fig. 7A); we therefore take y. = 27”s. The
resultant stresses from eq. 2 are given in Fig. 2 for E = 1.5 - 10” dyn/cm’.
We have suggested that these stresses are responsible for the rifting in East
Africa.

Fig. 2. The African plate and an equivalent circular plate (dashed line). The stress levels in
the circular plate due to a 20” change in latitude from eq. 2 are shown. The outline of the
East African Rift system is also shown.
Thermd stresses

Temperature changes in an elastic medium result in thermal stresses andj

or strain. We have shown that the Iithosphere behaves elastically on geologi-
cal time scales at temperatures below a yield temperature T,. Assuming that
the lithosphere is constrained in one direction but is unconstrained in the
orthogonal directions, the thermal stress in the constrained direction due to
a change in temperature is related to the initial temperature T,, the final
temperature TZ, and the yield temperature by:

(JT = Q&(T, - T,); T,< T,,T, < T,

UT = e,W-‘~ - Ty); T, < T, < T,
UT= 0; T,> T,,T,> T, (3)

where 01~is the coefficient of linear thermal expansion. Positive stress is com-
pression.
A heat-conduction problem which is often applicable in geophysics is a
semi-infinite region z > 0 with an initial temperature T,, at time t = 0 the
surface is given a temperature !Z’,.The temperature in the semi-infinite region
for t > 0 is:

T---To = (T, -To) erf[$($)“‘] (4)

where K is the thermal diffusivity of the medium. This result is a good ap-

bT, kb
0 5 IO

Fig. 3. Thermal stresses in a cooling confined lithosphere for different values of the yield
temperature.
 189

proximation for the cooling of the oceanic lithosphere away from an ocean
ridge.
The thermal stress from eqs. 3 assuming T2 is given by eq. 4 and T1 = T, is
given in Fig. 3. It is assumed that Tm = llOO”C, To = O”C, E = 1.5 - 10” dyn.
erg/cm*, eL = 10-50C-‘, and Ty = 300, 500, 700°C. It is seen that very large
thermal stresses can be generated even if the yield temperature is as low as
300°C. We have previously suggested (Turcotte, 1974b) that these stresses
may be responsible for the transform fault pattern at ocean ridges. A similar
suggestion has also been made by Collette (1974).

Overburden stresses

When erosion or sedimen~tion occurs the hydrostatic pressure due to the

overburden changes. This change
vertical strain in the crustal rock.
ing horizontal strains must occur
no horizontal strain the resultant
by:
in the vertical component of stress causes a
If the rock behaves elastically correspond-
or horizontal stresses will result. Assuming
horizontal stress in an elastic crust is given

-
1 2v
( 1
u L = -iq- P&k

where .ZL is the depth of overburden added or removed and p is its density,
However, when erosion or sedimen~tion occurs the temperature of the
rock changes. Therefore, a thermal stress must be considered in addition to
the overburden stress given above. Assuming that the distribution of radio-
active heat sources H in the crust is exponential (Lachenbruch, 1970):

H = Ho exp(-z/b) (6)

where Ho is the original surface value and b is a scale depth, the initial
steady-state temperature distribution in the crust is:

where Qm is the mantle contribution to the heat flow and Q, = b Ho is the

crustal contribution to the heat flow.
We can now calculate the surface stress due to the erosion of an elastic
crust with no horizontal strain. For erosion to a depth ZL the change in tem-
perature is obtained from eq. 7 and this is substituted into eq. 3 to give the
thermal stress (note there is an additional factor of (1 - v)-’ because the me-
dium is completely constrained horizontally). The thermal stress is added to
eq. 5 to give the surface stress:
190

Fig. 4. Surface stress due to erosion to a depth ZL for various values of the initial surface
heat flow. Positive stresses are compressional; negative tensional.

Note that the stress due to overburden and the thermal stress tend to cancel;
the overburden stress is compressive and the thermal stress is tensional.
Taking E = 8 - lOi dyn/cm*, v = 0.25, p = 2.7 gm/cm3, eL = 8 * 10d”C-‘, k =
5 * 1 0d3 cal. cm-‘. set-lo C-‘, Q, = 0.8 peal - crne2 see-‘, and b = 10 km the sur-
face stress is given in Fig. 4 for several values of the total initial surface heat
flow Q. = Q, + Q,. Note that in regions of low heat flow the surface stress
is compressional but in regions of high heat flow the surface stress may be
tensional. The magnitude of the stress may be as great as a kilobar. A more
detailed treatment of this problem including the depth dependence has been
given by Haxby and Turcotte (1976).

Stresses due to variations in crustal thickness

Variations in crustal thickness cause stress (Artyushkov, 1973; 1974).

Stress levels required to maintain the topography of mountains are of the or-
der of 1 kbar. Stresses of the same magnitude are also required to maintain
the roots of mountains because of the density difference between mantle
and crustal rocks. Extreme variations in crustal thickness occur at continen-
tal margins. The stress maintaining these variations should contribute signifi-
cantly to the state of stress in these regions (Bott and Dean, 1972).
 191

GEOLOGICAL CONSEQUENCES

Most geological phenomena adjacent to plate margins have been explained

in terms of plate tectonics. However, no completely satisfactory explanation
is available for intraplate volcanism, seismicity, and mountain building. The
presence of the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain terminating in the
Hawaiian Islands requires an explanation. Around the southern Atlantic
there are localized centers of volcanism at Fernando Noronha, Martin Vaz,
the Cape Verde Islands, and the Canaries. There has been recent volcanic ac-
tivity throughout the continent of Africa. One of the worst earthquakes re-
corded in the United States occurred near New Madrid, Missouri, seismic ac-
tivity continues in this area far from the plate boundaries without explana-
tion. The topography of the Appalachian Mountains of the eastern United
States can only be explained by current tectonic activity.
A comprehensive explanation of these intraplate phenomena is the man-
tle-plume hypothesis proposed by Morgan (1972a, 1972b). He suggested that
the Pacific islandseamount chains, oceanic areas of abnormally high topog-
raphy such as the Iceland-Faeroe Ridge and the Walvis Ridge, and areas of
continental volcanism such as the East African Rift system and the Snake
RiverYellowstone volcanics are the surface signatures of fixed deep mantle
plumes. The original hypothesis that the plumes are fixed in the mantle has
been shown to be invalid (Winterer, 1973; Clague and Jarrard, 1973; Molnar
and Atwater, 1973), however, the hypothesis of slowly moving plumes does
explain many observed features (Minster et al., 1974). The seventeen plumes
originally suggested by Morgan (1972a) are clearly too few. Burke and Kidd
(1975) have examined this question and suggest that there are at least 120
“hot spots” (plumes). With this number required the original mantle-plume
hypothesis is open to serious question, particularly when there is no obser-
vational evidence for the existence of plumes.
We suggest that the intraplate volcanism, seismicity, and tectonics attri-
buted to mantle plumes are, in fact, caused by intraplate stresses. We hypoth-
esize that intraplate stresses cause tensional failure of the lithosphere. Where-
ever there is a tensional failure of the lithosphere magmas penetrate the
lithosphere from the asthenosphere resulting in volcanism. A mechanism for
the penetration of magmas through a lithosphere in tension has been pro-
posed by Anderson and Perkins (in preparation).

Oceanic islandseamount chains

The most spectacular islandseamount chain is the Hawaiian-Emperor

seamount chain in the Pacific terminating in the active volcanism of the Ha-
waiian Islands. The propagation of the volcanism along the chain is well-
established. Wilson (1963) suggested that this was due to the movement of
the Pacific plate over a fixed mantle “hot spot” and Morgan (1971) ex-
tended this to a deep mantle plume. Morgan (1972a, 1972b) also suggested
192

that the Austral-Gilbert-Marshall Island chain terminating in the active

volcanism at MacDonald seamount, the Tuamotu-Line Island chain termi-
nating at Easter Island, and the Pratt-Welker seamount chain terminating
near Cobb seamount were similar features. Duncan et al. (1974) suggest that
Pitcairn Island is the terminus of another volcanic chain. The linear structure
and chronology of these chains are not well-established and their similarity
to the Hawaiian-Emperor chain is open to serious questions.
Betz and Hess (1942) suggested that the Hawaiian Islandseamount chain
was the result of a propagating fracture. This hypothesis explains the linear
chronology of the chain. We have suggested (Turcotte and Oxburgh, in prep-
aration) that the geometry of the chain is determined by a plastic failure of
the lithosphere. Bijlaard (1935) has examined the tensional plastic failure of
a thin plate and has concluded that the failure will occur at an angle of 55”
44’ with respect to the direction of the tensional force. If the tensional force
causing a propagating failure of the oceanic lithosphere lies perpendicular to
the direction of sea-floor spreading then the island chain should lie at an
angle of 34”16’ with respect to the direction of sea-floor spreading. Assum-
ing that the Molokai fracture zone and the Emperor Trough (fracture zone)
determine the direction of sea-floor spreading in the Pacific, excellent agree-

Fig. 5. Orientation of the Hawaiian -Emperor chain with regard to the major fracture
zones of the Pacific.
 193

ment is obtained between the orientation of the Hawaiian-Emperor and the

Bijlaard theory. This is illustrated in Fig. 5. We suggest that the Hawaiian-
Emperor chain is the result of a propagating fracture caused by the cooling
and thickening of the plate with time. The thermal stresses are perpendicular
to the spreading direction since thermal stresses in the direction of spreading
are relieved at the ridge crest.

AFRICA

SOUTH
AMERICA

Fig. 6. Volcanic islands of the central and southern Atlantic Ocean.

194

Localized continental-margin volcanism

The margins of the Atlantic Ocean are characterized by localized areas of

recent volcanism and short chains of volcanic centers adjacent to the conti-
nental margins. The best defined volcanic chain extends some 700 km off
the east coast of South America terminating in the recently active volcanoes
on the islands of Trinidad and Martin Vaz. Somewhat further north are the
volcanic islands Fernando Noronha and Rocas.
Very active volcanic centers off the west coast of Africa are the Cape
Verde Islands and the Canary Islands. The island of Madeira is also the site of
recent volcanism. These volcanic centers do not take the form of volcanic
chains. Somewhat further south is the chain of islands Annobon, Sgo Tome,
Principe, and Fernando P6o which terminate in the active continental vol-
cano Mount Cameroun. The positions of these areas of volcanism are given in
Fig. 6.
The closeness of these volcanic centers to the continental margins suggests
that there is a correlation. We have previously discussed stresses associated
with changes in topography.‘Clearly at continental margins a significant
thickening of the crust occurs and large regional stresses will result. In addi-
tion, the thermal stresses due to the cooling of the oceanic lithosphere in the
Atlantic will be a maximum at the continental margins. We suggest that com-
bined topographic and thermal stresses have caused a series of tensional fail-
ures of the lithosphere along the margins of the Atlantic. If these volcanoes
are the result of mantle plumes why do the plumes lie beneath the continen-
tal margin? A propagating-fracture hypothesis for the Canary Islands has
been supported by Anguita and Herman (1975).

Continental rifting

The most spectacular example of continental rifting is the East African

Rift system. A str~ght-forw~d explanation of this rift system is that it is the
result of ascending mantle convection beneath Africa. The traction forces
due to the diverging horizontal flow beneath the lithosphere cause the exten-
sional tectonics associated with the rift system. There are several difficulties
associated with this hypothesis. First, there is no evidence for upper-mantle
convection beneath the rift system. Also, the relatively small horizontal ex-
tension, 10 km, has extended over at least 40 m-y. There is a world-wide dis-
tribution of graben structures with similar magnitudes of horizontal exten-
sion. There is no apparent reason for a mantle convection cell to cause a
small but finite extension. Morgan (197213) has associated the East African
Rift system with a deep mantle plume beneath the Afar triangle. It is diffi-
cult to understand how this hot spot could cause similar volcanism along
some 3500 km of the rift system. To overcome this difficulty Burke and Kidd
(1975) have hypothesized seven hot spots (plumes) along the rift system.
However, this hypothesis, with the many other hot spots they associate with
 /
7c

60

50

7”
40

30

20

IO

_.I
400 0
0 ---iii----2 300 400

TIME, my

I _
to--+-. ’
0 200 300 4’

TIME, my flME. my
C 0

:tween present and past latitude as a function of time for several cities. A. Africa. B. India. C. South America.
196

k . . c
 197

Africa, creates severe difficulties with the plume hypothesis. The first is that
there are simply too many plumes. One-hundred or more of the plumes pos-
tulated by Morgan would simply require too much mass flow. Also, why
should mantle plumes align themselves with a preexisting zone of weakness.
As in the case of two-dimensional mantle convection, plumes do not explain
the small but finite extension associated with continental rift and graben
structures.
We have previously suggested that the East African Rift system was caused
by membrane stresses in the African plate due to its northward movement in
the last 100 m.y. (Oxburgh and Turcotte, 1974). The difference between the
present latitude and past latitude for several cities on several continents are
given in Fig. 7 as a function of time. In Fig. 7A the northward movement of
Africa over the last 350 m.y. is shown. In Fig. 7B the northward movement
of India is shown. We associate rapid northward movement of the last 100
m.y. with the extrusion of the Deccan Traps through ruptures in the litho-
sphere caused by membrane stresses.
In Fig. 7C changes in latitude of South America are illustrated. For the
last 100 m.y. there has been virtually no change in latitude. We attribute the
present absense of volcanism to this lack of movement. The Parana flood
basalts correlate well with the last episode of latitude change. In Fig. 7D
changes in latitude of North America are illustrated. As in the case of South
America there has been little change in latitude in the last 100 m.y. This ex-
plains the absence of volcanism in the eastern United States. We would as-
sociate the rapid northward movement which occurred 150-200 m.y. B.P.
with the breakup of Pangia to form the north Atlantic Ocean. The mem-
brane stresses initiated the rupture.
It has been advocated by a number of authors that the Snake River basalts
represent a plume track terminating in the Yellowstone “hot spot”. The age
distribution of the Snake River volcanics from the work of Armstrong et al.
(1975) is given in Fig. 8. Although there is a well-defined age progession, re-
cent volcanic activity extends some 700 km from the proposed Yellowstone
plume. Why should a plume generate magma 700 km away? The observa-
tions are consistent with the propagating-fracture hypothesis. The fracture
tip is migrating eastward, giving the onset of volcanism. Volcanism continues
through the fracture due to tensional stresses. Volcanism due to tensional
stresses and tectonics is a logical explanation for the widespread, recent vol-
canism in the Basin and Range Province of the western United States.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research has been supported by the Earth Sciences Section, National
Science Foundation, NSF Grant DES74-03259 AOl.
 198

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