Abstract Earth’s continents can come together to form supercontinents and the supercontinents can break apart into fragments of varying size scattering around the globe through a hypothetical process called continental drift. The continental drift hypothesis had survived after ∼60 years debate and evolved into the powerful theory of plate tectonics with unquestionable and irrefutable lines of evidence. This narrative statement is familiar and acceptable to everyone in the scientific community, but scientists differ when talking about the cause of continental breakup. Some advocate mantle plumes, especially superplumes, as the cause (“bottom up”), whereas others emphasize plate tectonics to be the cause (“top down”) and still some believe both are needed. In this short paper, I do not wish to enter the debate, but offer a readily understandable geological analysis on the likely driving mechanisms of plate tectonics and mantle plumes, which leads to the conclusion that continental breakup is a straightforward consequence of plate tectonics without requiring mantle plumes. Mantle plumes, if needed, may be of help at the early rifting stage, but cannot lead to complete breakup, let alone to drive long distance dispersal of broken continents. Superplumes invoked by many do not exist. The debate may continue, but I encourage enthusiastic debaters to consider these straightforward concepts and principles of geology and physics given in this objective analysis.

中文翻译：

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大陆分裂成因：板块构造与地幔柱驱动机制浅析

摘要 地球的大陆可以聚集在一起形成超大陆，超大陆可以通过称为大陆漂移的假设过程分裂成大小不一的碎片散布在全球各地。大陆漂移假说在经过大约 60 年的争​​论后幸存下来，并演变成具有无可置疑和无可辩驳证据线的强大板块构造理论。这种叙述性陈述为科学界的每个人都熟悉和接受，但在谈论大陆分裂的原因时，科学家们有不同的看法。一些人主张地幔柱，尤其是超级柱是原因（“自下而上”），而另一些人则强调板块构造是原因（“自上而下”），还有一些人认为两者都需要。在这篇简短的论文中，我不想参与辩论，但提供了对板块构造和地幔柱的可能驱动机制的易于理解的地质分析，从而得出结论，大陆破裂是板块构造的直接结果，不需要地幔柱。如果需要，地幔柱可能在早期裂谷阶段有所帮助，但不能导致完全分裂，更不用说推动破碎大陆的长距离扩散了。许多人调用的超级羽流并不存在。辩论可能会继续，但我鼓励热情的辩论者考虑在这个客观分析中给出的这些简单的地质和物理学概念和原理。这导致得出结论，大陆分裂是板块构造的直接结果，不需要地幔柱。如果需要，地幔柱可能在早期裂谷阶段有所帮助，但不能导致完全分裂，更不用说推动破碎大陆的长距离扩散了。许多人调用的超级羽流并不存在。辩论可能会继续，但我鼓励热情的辩论者考虑在这个客观分析中给出的这些简单的地质和物理学概念和原理。这导致得出结论，大陆分裂是板块构造的直接结果，不需要地幔柱。如果需要，地幔柱可能在早期裂谷阶段有所帮助，但不能导致完全分裂，更不用说推动破碎大陆的长距离扩散了。许多人调用的超级羽流并不存在。辩论可能会继续，但我鼓励热情的辩论者考虑在这个客观分析中给出的这些简单的地质和物理学概念和原理。