The continental plates of Earth are known to drift over a geophysical timescale, and their interactions have lead to some of the most spectacular geoformations of our planet while also causing natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic activity. Understanding the dynamics of interacting continental plates is thus significant. In this work, we present a fluid mechanical investigation of the plate motion, interaction, and dynamics. Through numerical experiments, we examine the coupling between a convective fluid and plates floating on top of it. With physical modeling, we show the coupling is both mechanical and thermal, leading to the thermal blanket effect: the floating plate is not only transported by the fluid flow beneath, it also prevents the heat from leaving the fluid, leading to a convective flow that further affects the plate motion. By adding several plates to such a coupled fluid-structure interaction, we also investigate how floating plates interact with each other and show that, under proper conditions, small plates can converge into a supercontinent.

翻译：地球的大陆板块已知在地球物理时间尺度上发生漂移，它们之间的相互作用既造就了地球上一些最壮观的地质构造，也引发了地震、火山活动等自然灾害。因此，理解相互作用的大陆板块动力学具有重要意义。本研究通过流体力学方法探究了板块运动、相互作用及其动力学机制。通过数值实验，我们检验了对流流体与漂浮其上的板块之间的耦合作用。物理建模表明，这种耦合既包括力学耦合也包括热耦合，从而产生热毯效应：漂浮板块不仅被其下方的流体流动所输运，还阻止了流体热量散失，进而形成进一步影响板块运动的对流。通过在耦合流固相互作用系统中引入多个板块，我们还研究了漂浮板块之间的相互作用，并证明在适当条件下，小板块能够汇聚形成超大陆。