Cinématique de la tectonique des plaques

The success of what can now be called, since the Joides drillings, the F.J. Vine and D.H. Matthews theory lead to the formulation of a hypothesis giving way to a kinematic description of the current tectonic activity on the surface of the earth. This hypothesis, the plate tectonic, admits that the orogenic areas, where most of the mechanical energy vanishes, are the areas where the differential horizontal motions between rigid lithospheric plates occurs. The success of this hypothesis relies on the fact that the aseismic deformations inside the plates are less important than the motions occurring along the seismic areas. The rigidity of the plates enables a rigorous analysis of their kinematic.