Testing the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm in the Seafloor Spreading Rate Problem

TL;DR

This paper applies the Dynamic Time Warping algorithm to analyze variations in seafloor spreading rates by comparing observed and synthetic marine magnetic anomaly profiles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of DTW to detect seafloor spreading rate changes using magnetic anomaly data.

Findings

DTW effectively identifies spreading rate variations

Synthetic magnetic fields match observed anomalies under certain conditions

Method provides a new tool for geophysical rate analysis

Abstract

We offer to apply the powerful Dynamic Time Warping (DTW) algorithm to find the spreading rate variation by comparing profiles of marine magnetic anomalies with the synthetic field constructed by the magnetic polarity reference scale. For the fixed spreading rate and the given interval of the polarity scale we generate the synthetic magnetic fields which we compare with the field obtained for temporal variations of seafloor spreading rate.