A tectonic regionalization of the world

We have constructed a tectonic regionalization of the world based solely on a cluster analysis of upper mantle tomographic models. This regionalization is objective in the sense that it is defined by the geographic distribution of clusters identified by automated comparison of shear velocity profiles. As the number of clusters is increased, differences between oceanic regions of different age are identified as do differences between stable continental cores, platforms and more-recently tectonically-active continental regions are highlighted.