FN Archimer Export Format PT J TI PLACA: a white box for plate reconstruction and best-fit pole determination BT AF MATIAS, Luis OLIVET, Jean-Louis ASLANIAN, Daniel FIDALGO, Luis AS 1:1,2;2:2;3:2;4:2; FF 1:PDG-DOP-DCB-GM-LGG;2:PDG-DOP-DCB-GM-LGG;3:PDG-DOP-DCB-GM-LGG;4:PDG-DOP-DCB-GM-LGG; C1 Univ Lisbon, Ctr Geofis, P-1749016 Lisbon, Portugal. IFREMER, Dept Geosci Marines, Plouzane, France. C2 UNIV LISBON, PORTUGAL IFREMER, FRANCE SI BREST SE PDG-DOP-DCB-GM-LGG IN WOS Ifremer jusqu'en 2018 copubli-europe IF 0.779 TC 16 UR https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/2005/publication-788.pdf LA English DT Article DE ;Precision;Confidence region;Fortran;Plate tectonics;Tectonophysics AB PLACA was developed as a general purpose computer program for the earth scientist that has to manipulate the rigid plate tectonics theory, from the representation of plate reconstructions to the determination of best-fit poles using magnetic anomalies, fracture zones or volcanic alignments. In the "forward" mode PLACA has the features of most available demonstration software plus the ability of simulating mid-oceanic ridges (MOR) as dynamic segments that move with a fraction of the relative motion between two plates. The movement can be illustrated by the generation of flow lines, plate trajectories and/or pseudo-magnetic anomalies on the ocean floor. The evolution of simple triple junctions of the R-R-R type can also be studied. In the "modifying" mode, best-fit poles can be computed either visually or by a systematic search routine. Five methods are available to evaluate the residuals between predicted and observed reconstructed points. Once the best-fit pole is obtained, several statistical tests can be done to evaluate the confidence on the fit.. Surprisingly, the use of high-resolution geophysical data that are now available in the oceanic domain doesn't always imply that the reconstruction poles are better constrained, as shown by an application example. Other examples presented document a discussion on the precision of plate reconstructions and suggest a few words of caution for the general user of PLACA. PY 2005 PD MAY SO Computers & Geosciences SN 0098-3004 PU Elsevier VL 31 IS 4 UT 000228262300005 BP 437 EP 452 DI 10.1016/j.cageo.2004.09.019 ID 788 ER EF