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Global Distribution of Eulerian Poles

Abstract

THE root of present day rigid plate tectonics is Euler's fixed axis theorem, whereby the displacement of any fraction of the total surface of a sphere which does not carry every point on it into itself is a rigid rotation about an axis which passes through the centre of the sphere (Eulerian axis), and pierces the surface of the sphere in two fixed antipodal points (Eulerian poles).

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FRASER, R. Global Distribution of Eulerian Poles. Nature 235, 324–325 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1038/235324a0

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