PALEOMAGNETIC TESTS OF PACIFIC PLATE RECONSTRUCTIONS AND IMPLICATIONSFOR MOTION BETWEEN HOTSPOTS

The plate-motion circuit through the South Pacific and Antarctica is s hown to fail paleomagnetic tests of consistency. These failures imply that reconstructions of Pacific basin plates relative to surrounding p lates inferred from this circuit are systematically in error and that estimates of motion between hotspots inferred from this circuit are pr obably too large. Therefore, the motions between hotspots remain poorl y known and may be much smaller than previously estimated.