Plume rise has been shown to trigger formation of a subduction zone within the Neotethys Ocean between Africa and Eurasia at ~105 Ma. Here, we show how a rising mantle plume set off a ‘plate tectonic chain reaction’. But whether and how such triggers propagate throughout a plate circuit remains unknown. Global plate reorganizations, intriguing but loosely defined periods of profoundly changing plate motions, may be caused by a single trigger such as a continental collision or a rising mantle plume.
