Fig. 4: Profiles of Caribbean asthenospheric flow velocities versus depth as a function of asthenospheric viscosity (see Eq. (1)).
From: Caribbean plate tilted and actively dragged eastwards by low-viscosity asthenospheric flow
The thick blue line denotes the profile corresponding to our preferred viscosity value of 3*1018 Pa s. The blue-shaded area shows the uncertainty of the velocity profile induced by the uncertainty in the pressure gradient. Colored boxes show independent estimates of flow velocity, constrained by the depth of melting and the migration rate of back-arc magmatism26 (purple box) and by the current position of the leading edge of the Galapagos plume material which has been flowing into the Caribbean since the opening of the slab window at ~8.5 Ma (red box). Profiles for alternative thickness values are reported in Supplementary Fig. 5.
