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We evaluate the spatial and temporal evolution of Earth's long-wavelength surface dynamic topography since the Jurassic using a series of high-resolution global mantle convection models. These models are Earth-like in terms of convective vigour, thermal structure, surface heat-flux and the geographic distribution of heterogeneity. The models generate a degree-2-dominated spectrum of dynamic topography with negative amplitudes above subducted slabs (i.e. circum-Pacific regions and southern Eurasia) and positive amplitudes elsewhere (i.e. Africa, north-western Eurasia and the central Pacific). Model predictions are compared with published observations and subsidence patterns from well data, both globally and for the Australian and southern African regions. We find that our models reproduce the long-wavelength component of these observations, although observed smaller-scale variations are not reproduced. We subsequently define "geodynamic rules" for how different surface tectonic settings are affected by mantle processes: (i) locations in the vicinity of a subduction zone show large negative dynamic topography amplitudes; (ii) regions far away from convergent margins feature long-term positive dynamic topography; and (iii) rapid variations in dynamic support occur along the margins of overriding plates (e.g. the western US) and at points located on a plate that rapidly approaches a subduction zone (e.g. India and the Arabia Peninsula). Our models provide a predictive quantitative framework linking mantle convection with plate tectonics and sedimentary basin evolution, thus improving our understanding of how subduction and mantle convection affect the spatio-temporal evolution of basin architecture.
We report FUSE observations in 2005–2006 of three O-type, double-lined spectroscopic binaries in the Magellanic Clouds. The systems have very short periods (1.4–2.25 d), represent rare, young evolutionary stages of massive stars and binaries, and provide a unique glimpse at some of the most massive systems that form in dense clusters of massive stars. Improved orbit parameters, including revised masses, for LH54-425 are derived from new ctio spectroscopy. The systems are: LH54-425 in the LMC (O3V + O5V, P=2.25d, 62+37M⊙), J053441-693139 in the LMC (O2-3If+O6V, P=1.4 d, 41+27M⊙), and Hodge 53-47 in the SMC (O6V + O4-5IIIf, P=2.2 d, 24+14M⊙, where the O4 star appears to be less massive than the O6 star). Their short periods indicates that wind interaction and mass transfer are likely important factors in their evolution. The spectra provide quantitative and systematic studies of phase-dependent stellar wind properties, wind collision effects in O+O binaries at lower metallicities, improved radial velocity curves, and FUV spectro-photometric changes as a function of orbital phase.